KitchenCraft KCNUTMEG Spice / Nutmeg Grater with Container, Stainless Steel, Silver

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Graters: These are far simpler in design than grinders and resemble small cheese graters. You simply rub the nutmeg (or other spice) over a piece of perforated metal. As far as safety goes, a grater is more dangerous to use because it’s possible to cut your fingers on the grate as you work. If you’re worried about this, look for a grater with an attachment that holds the nutmeg – so you don’t have to hold it directly. Some mandolines include graters that work well with nutmeg. Common grater styles for nutmeg (and other spices) include the following: By the mid-nineteenth century, the price for nutmeg became moderately priced. The study of mid-Victorian and American Civil war cookbooks shows that one out of five recipes contained nutmeg as a flavoring. Use of the spice was prevalent in everything from pumpkin pie and rice pudding to venison broth and ketchup. Even a concoction to treat baldness with nutmeg is known. From the 1850s to the 1920s an astonishing array of technologically improved nutmeg graters were patented from across America. Each product attested to be superior to the last, all designed to complete a simple chore without abrading the user's fingers. While a handful of mechanical nutmeg graters were success stories, most were short lived failures. Personal silver nutmeg grate circa 1690. Gentleman would carry one with them so they could grate fresh nutmeg into their beverages such as nog or punch. Metropolitan Museum of Art / wikimedia / 2017 / Public Domain Many people never clean their nutmeg grater, at all. They say they only ever use it for that one thing, and that they aren’t concerned if a microscopic portion of nutmeg from the last use gets included with the nutmeg freshly ground this time.

Karen Marley, author of SpiceSherpa.com, does not clean hers. She writes, “Nutmeg is also one of those ‘clean’ spices so you aren’t obligated to [do] extra cleaning when you use your grater. Trust me on this one…” [4] Marley, Karen. Nutmeg graters. Accessed October 2019 at http://www.spicesherpa.com/nutmeg-graters In the case of a manual grinder or grater, a comfortable handle is crucial. Many handles are dubbed “ergonomic” by the manufacturers, which just means the handle is contoured to comfortably fit your hand. Maintaining your grip on a handheld grater or grinder is important for keeping you safe and allowing you to work efficiently. Storage Graters: With most graters, you have easy access to both sides, and they can be cleaned by hand or in the dishwasher. However, grater blades can get damaged in a dishwasher, so for best results, use hot water, dish soap, and a sponge, drawing the sponge along the surface of the grater in the same direction as the blades. A nutmeg grater is an essential part of a toolkit for bartenders, who use them to grate fresh nutmeg as an aromatic garnish for drinks:

Nutmeg grinder prices

Semicylindrical graters are laid flat on a surface to use and often have a compartment to store whole nutmeg. If you’re looking for a grater specifically for nutmeg, this is a good option. As mentioned above, nutmeg is native to a number of Indian Ocean islands known, fittingly enough as, the Spice Islands. It was one of many prized and rare spices that were wildly popular in the west during the Middle Ages and Renaissance -- cinnamon, pepper, and cloves were also highly sought after -- both for its culinary uses and for its perceived medicinal characteristics. (It was thought for many centuries that nutmeg and certain other spices could help to prevent infection with the bubonic plague.) In the 17th and 18th century, gentlemen would carry their own small, personal silver nutmeg grater with them. This allowed them to freshly grate their own nutmeg into fashionable drinks such as punches, nogs, and hot mulled wine. It isn’t quite as simple as throwing a nutmeg in the grinder and turning it on. Follow these steps: Some people store their uncleaned grater in a sealed plastic bag, to keep the nutmeg embedded on it “fresher” between uses.

Some people prefer using a grinder because it does away with the risk of grating bits of your skin in with the nutmeg. Cleaning a nutmeg graterWhen you consider the extra flavour offered by freshly ground nutmeg and the fact that whole nutmeg lasts for years, a grinder offers an economical alternative to buying ground nutmeg. Key considerations