A box grater is a multi-use tool with more than a dozen creative purposes. In addition to gracing your pasta with a bounty of fluffy, freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, a grater is also a handy device for de-stemming herbs, prepping the perfect carrot cake, slicing squash, and shredding frozen butter. With a lot of use, however, box graters can wear down. Some enterprising social media chefs are turning to their drinkware shelves to refresh dulling cheese graters.
Just like dull knives, a dull box grater is more dangerous to work with. Usually, when things become more difficult to grate, it’s time to start shopping for a replacement. However, innovative social media foodies are reaching for a spare mug to sharpen the shredding device (You might not want to use a cherished souvenir cup for this one). In a video shared to Tiktok by Anatolii Dobrovolskyi, the chef repeatedly runs a mug upwards along a metal box grater a few times. After wiping the grater down, Dobrovolskyi goes on to successfully shred a potato with the apparently sharpened grater.
A sharp greater is a great grater
While most chefs recommend replacing dulling microplanes and box graters — asserting there is no safe and effective way to sharpen them — the mug method isn’t entirely new. It’s a hack some cooks have used to revive lackluster knives. Chef James Kenji López-Alt shared the hack to Instagram, demonstrating how the quick trick upgraded a dull blade after a few rubs against the bottom of a mug. The mug functions a lot like a traditional whetstone (or sharpening stone), using the unglazed band on the bottom of the mug to renew the ineffective knife.
Proper grater care will keep the device sharp and prolong its place in your kitchen. If you hand-wash your box grater after each use rather than put it in the dishwasher it will last longer, but if you do want to run it through, make sure your box grater is dishwasher safe. When washing by hand, you can safely clean your cheese grater by scrubbing it thoroughly using soap, warm water, and a firm brush to remove any clingy cheese left behind.
