Life is Just Grate!

I am a self-confessed aficionado of vintage kitchen implements. I have found in case after case that newer and snazzier is not always better. The best example I know of to demonstrate this point is kitchen graters. The kind we use to grate cheese, cabbage, carrots for carrot salad and occasionally knuckles.

 

Early American Knuckle Grater

I have, in my more than 50 years in a kitchen, tried every type of grater I can get my scraped knuckles on. I started young standing on a chair to stir a pot at the stove and never looked back. I have used box graters, round graters, flat graters and grater blades that fit on my Cuisinart.  I have sexy Microplanes with attachments.

A Microplane just for garlic

My own classic English box grater

I’ve thrown out tons of graters with barrels and cranks because they were more annoying than useful. I have found graters for garlic and porcelain graters for ginger; I have tiny graters for nutmeg and citrus zest. You name it, someone came up with it and in many cases I have tried it.

 

Nutmeg grater with Bakelite handle and a regular small nutmeg grater. Nothing tastes as yummy as fresh nutmeg!

Zester, a cousin to the grater and a handy tool indeed.

 

Which brings me back to the mother of all graters, (Insert angelic chorus of ahhhh! here) The Mouli Grater. If you are lucky enough to find or own an old Mouli, treasure it, love it, and hide it from those who would snitch it from your utensil drawer.

The Ultimate. Mouli Grater.

 

A little history  of the grater for you: The first cheese grater was thought to have been invented in France in the 1540s by Francois Brouillier and a pewter example is in the Musee de Havre in France. Cheese graters fell out of fashion along with hard cheese for many years all over the world and grater development languished.  A man named Jeffrey Taylor came up with a cheese grater concept in the 1920s in the USA. His model was the grate from the bottom of a shower. We can only hope he washed it first. From there we got the plethora of the doo dads collectors love to collect today,  but then came the Mouli.

 

Original all metal Mouli

 

Mouli was the brain child of Jean Mantelet who founded the company in France in 1932 with the invention of a hand cranked food mill that was the precursor to the food mills we know today. The company grew and thrived and in 1957, was renamed Moulinex to catch a ride on the coat tails of their first successful electric coffee grinder.

 

 

The 'box' where you put the cheese to grind

 
As time went on a lot of the parts of the graters went to plastic and the company went through a series of fiscal disasters and was sold several times in a slow downhill slide. There may be a Moulinex or Mouli on the market today but these are NOT in any sense of the word, the old school quality Mouli grater or Mouli Julienne that are such amazing work horses in the kitchen. If you see a Mouli with a plastic body or casing, lay it down and walk away. Keep hunting until you find the real deal. An all metal Mouli with a wooden turn crank on the handle. Okay, that much plastic you can have. One button, but that’s it.

It holds shut easily with one hand

 I buy every Mouli I can find because they are becoming rarer by the day. I have given one to each of my children who are all excellent cooks and I have a pair and a spare standing by just in case. I have been known to give them as wedding gifts WITH a complete explanation as to why this is such an amazing gift. Picture the puzzled bride opening a gift wrapped box to find a grizzled old grater and understand why the gift of explanation and a few recipes really matter.
 
So what is this thing called Mouli and why is it fab? I like grating cheese quickly and a box grater takes forever and removes knuckles along the way if I don’t focus, it takes forever and makes a mess too. The Mouli has a barrel with a crank that drops into a device that lets you put a chunk of cheese in the top, firmly hold the thing in your hand and turn the crank.  It doesn’t bend or twist or make a mess and it cleans fast and easily.  I love that, something so simple and so perfect. My own Mouli has two different sized barrels for cheese but you’ll usually find them with just the finer barrel which is great for hard cheese. And then we graduate to the Julienne.

 

The Mouli Julienne grater

cheese in the hopper

 

All done!

 
Now we hit the big time. This looks like a metal three legged scorpion to me. To use it, the round rotary cutting blade of choice is inserted, the crank is dropped in to hold it in place, the item to be ground up is dropped into the hopper-- be it carrots, cabbage or cheddar cheese—the lid goes down and the crank is turned. Voila, out the bottom comes perfectly shredded or sliced bits and bites.  Again, even a light weight can use it and it’s easy to clean. Why on earth did they stop making these?

 

Size comparison between the Julienne and the King-sized Salad Maker

A friend recently gave me the crème de la crème: The Mouli Salad Maker, still in its original box. This is like a tiger compared to a house cat and the first thing it did was bite me. It has folding legs and I won’t show a picture of the pinched thumb I managed to give myself in the process of setting it up.  The sexy instruction book that came with it says I can even grate ice cubes and peppermint sticks with this baby. Well, maybe not together but still….

Still in the box with instructions and recipes for the handy 50s housewife

 

This unit is called “King Size” in the brochure and it was made in New Jersey in the 1950s and it’s still as sturdy and viable today as it was over 50 years ago. I don’t think everyone needs this giant pre-Ron P. Salad Maker version, but I’m glad I have it. If you can find the smaller cheese grater invest in this vintage delight. Just do it! The Julienne model that looks like a scorpion is equally cool but much harder to find but worth the hunt for excellent carrot salad making and slicing lettuce into delightful shreds for sandwiches. And when you do find one of these? Use them, love them and hide them from your friends.

 

Look at all those attachments!

Mouli, king of graters