Microplane 40020 Grater/Zester

by Microplane

Product Features

• Designed to extract the best flavor from your food
• High-quality stainless steel with grating edges that stay razor sharp
• Excellent for hard cheeses,onions, citrus fruits, ginger and more
• Blade measures 8-1/2 inches long; ergonomic black plastic handle
• Hand wash and dry thoroughly

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 12 x 1 x 0.2 inches ; 8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004S7V8
• Item model number: 40020
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (335 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #52 in Kitchen & Dining (See Top 100 in Kitchen & Dining)

  #1 in	Kitchen & Dining > Kitchen Utensils & Gadgets > Graters, Peelers & Slicers > Graters
  #1 in	Kitchen & Dining > Kitchen Utensils & Gadgets > Cheese Tools > Graters
  #1 in	Kitchen & Dining > Kitchen Utensils & Gadgets > Fruit & Vegetable Tools > Zesters & Reamers

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

For fluffy, evenly sized cheese shreds, this is the perfect grater. Its design is based on that of a rasp, the small and efficient woodworking tool. The cutters are especially sharp, which guarantees easy grating. But this also means you'll need to exercise extra caution--no one likes grated knuckles. The large handle allows for a firm grip, and the completely flat grating surface makes it easy to move the cheese across the blades. Carrots, onions, and medium to firm cheeses all worked beautifully with this grater. It's also an excellent choice for larger strips of citrus zest or ginger. --Jill Lightner

Product Description

Here's a zester that means business! You'll have a mound of zest in seconds flat with minimal effort. This tool also shreds Parmesan and other hard cheeses quickly and efficiently.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

479 of 494 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wish I'd bought this grater MONTHS ago!, August 16, 2000

By	"wallaann" (Birmingham, Al USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microplane 40020 Grater/Zester (Kitchen)

I purchased this after spending 2 hours zesting limes for a gourmet cookie recipe with the traditional potato-peeler+ food processor method. The most time consuming part is carefully scraping way all the white pith on the inside of the peel. The pith is very bitter and can ruin your recipe. This zester did the same job in 30 seconds and didn't even touch the pith. Just pure, perfect lime zest with no effort. Totally worth its weight in gold. Now I can make those cookies again without my hands cramping up after hours scraping the peels. Who has time for that?

I've also started using it for grating parmesan. Definately takes Ceaser salads and pasta up a notch. I'm purchasing several more as gifts for my friends. Would make an incredible (and cheap) holiday/birthday gift for anyone, even the casual cook. Please note that the size of the grated zest or cheese is very fine and not ideal as a garnish. Parmesan or Romano grated with this tool melts quickly into the pasta, and doesn't lend much to the presentation. Tastes great, but hard to see. If you're looking for a garnishing tool, this is not it.

91 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Microplane Works!, November 7, 2003

By	In My Garden "summersweet" (In My Garden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microplane 40020 Grater/Zester (Kitchen)

When I received this wonderful product I placed it in the drawer and mostly forgot about it until it was time to grate some parmesan cheese. I remembered I had bought it, brought it out and pressing the cheese hard against the grater I ran it down. To my absolute amazement the cheese came out the underside of the grater with total ease. I ran the cheese across it again, this time, pressing lightly and the same thing happened. Whenever I had grated cheeses before the job was ardurous, very time consuming, and the result was usually more of a powder then nicely sectioned flakes of hard cheese.

This grater is made of the very best material and extremely sharp! I can see owning this tool for many years because of its quality. I am very pleased with my purchase and encourage others to buy one.

The grater came with the manufacturers "slip cover" over it and I decided to keep it on the grater when not in use for two reasons:

1. The grating surface is very sharp. It would be easy to cut yourself pulling this out of the drawer. Ouch!

2. I want to preserve the grating surface's blades for as long as possible because this is now one of my favorite tools.

101 of 105 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This tool will not grate on your nerves, October 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Microplane 40020 Grater/Zester (Kitchen)

This is probably the only tool in my kitchen that I've also found in my dad's workshop. I use it for a variety of grating tasks including hard cheeses, chocolate, nutmeg, cinnamon, and citrus zests.

For hard cheeses such as parmesan, you'll get a nice, light fluffy pile of cheese as opposed to the grittier result from a traditional box grater. This is because the Microplane actually produces tiny, thin strips as opposed to hard little granules. Your cheese will melt faster and will actually look somewhat elegant perched in a snowy mound atop a bowl of pasta.

Hard spices such as nutmeg grate quickly and easily, and it's a snap to run the Microplane over an orange or lemon for just the right amount of zest and no pith (unless you press to hard or work the same spot too long). With wetter foods like zest, you will have to slide the resulting product from the backside of the plane as it does tend to stick, but this only takes a quick flick of your finger. Chocolate will need to be quite cold so that it's hard enough to grate without melting or slipping.

Finally, the Microplane is extremely easy to use because you can grate right into the pot or onto a plate. It's long enough to rest on the lip of most bowls, and it's elegant enough to bring to the table. In fact, we recently had a dinner party and we passed around this tool so that our guests could grate just the right amount of bittersweet chocolate into their black-bean chili.

Cleaning can be a bit tricky with this tool, since its sharp holes will catch on a towel when you try to dry it. Personally, I find that a few hard taps dislodge any gunk and I seldom need to actually wash it. But if you do get it wet, be sure to dry it thoroughly as you would with any fine kitchen knife. If you wipe toward the handle, it shouldn't be a problem.