Imagine you are a housewife living in the 1940s. You have lots to do – cleaning, washing, ironing, looking after the children and of course cooking. You seem to always be cooking something or other to feed your hungry family. Luckily, you have plenty of kitchen gadgets which help to save time, but your favourite would still have to be the simple grater which you have had since you married. With all different blades in all different sizes it makes it much easier to stretch that last bit of cheese or even bread further!
When I showed the children this kitchen grater, they were amazed by it. They are used to box graters, or even food processors being used in modern kitchens and had never seen a grater like this. They thought it was very clever though, allowing whatever was being grated to fall directly into the bowl placed beneath. As one child said ‘it seems so simple, but it would make much less mess!’ Many children thought that, should such a grater be produced today, it would be very successful – one child even suggested ‘you could make a fortune!’
The history of the grater (also known as the shredder – the version I showed the children is a Kandy Salad Shredder) stretches back further than might be expected and provides a fascinating insight into eating habits and trends of the past. The first ever grater, made of pewter, is thought to have been created in the 1540s in France by Francois Boullier and is actually on display at the Museum du Havre in France. At the time there was a lot of fear related to eating meat as it often caused disease so many farmers turned to dairy products – particularly cheese. A lot of new cheese varieties were created, and some of them became very hard. They needed to have something done if they were going to be marketable, and the grater was the answer. By grating the cheese it could be turned into more easily usable products and many farmers grated their hard cheeses before selling them. Others sold their hard cheeses as chunks to families who owned their own grater. Soon there was an overabundance of cheese and it had become a staple of the European diet. The grater too had achieved almost instant success and Boullier continued to develop and perfect his invention. Then drought struck Europe in the late 1500s and cheese rapidly increased in price. Now only the rich could afford it, and graters were confined to the upper classes. Over time, graters and grated cheese all but disappeared from European recipes and culture.
In the 20th century though, all of this changed. Jeffery Taylor owned a cheese store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA) and in the 1920s he decided to reintroduce the hard cheeses of the past. Just as Boullier had done, Taylor saw that these hard cheeses needed some way to be made more marketable – they were too hard to sell as they were. So, he recreated the grater (though it wasn’t called that yet!) He sharpened the holes in a metal shower drain and soon enough the cheese and the little appliance was flying off the shelves. It was the Great Depression which saw the kitchen utensil achieve lasting success though, when it was marketed as extending the amount of cheese. By grating cheese, it seemed that the portions were larger, and Taylor began to promote his reinvention as the ‘greater’. The name stuck (though the e was dropped) and so did the kitchen gadget – it seems today that they come in all shapes and sizes, but most kitchens will have at least one!