Grating cheese — both soft and hard — is quite a "task".
Sometimes cheese grates easily, while other times it breaks and clogs the holes of the grater. It turns out there is a simple solution to this problem that professional chefs have long used.
According to experts from Simply Recipes, before grating, cheese should be placed in the freezer for 25–30 minutes.
Why Grating Cheese is Difficult
Semi-hard varieties like cheddar, gouda, or Swiss are too elastic. If grated without cooling, they heat up from the hands, bend, break, and mix into sticky lumps.
Chilled cheese becomes denser and glides easily across the surface of the tool. The key here is not to overdo it. Completely frozen, "rock-hard" cheese is even more difficult to grate than "slightly thawed" cheese.
With soft cheeses like mozzarella and suluguni, the freezer trick also works, but they only need to be in the cold for 10–15 minutes.
