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Comment by bob1029 | Hacker News Reader

I've discovered that anti-caking additives make certain kinds of cheese really crappy too. For the worst offenders it turns into a gelatin-like substance if you melt into something like chili.

Not sure exactly which additive does this, but there are definitely brands that don't exhibit this effect or not as badly.

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It's just cornstarch. Same reason you should never use pre-shredded cheese on a pizza, the cornstarch burns faster than the cheese does.

Because it's soluble in water, you can (and I have) washed pre-shredded cheese in a colander and dried it on a kitchen towel when it was all I had on hand, and it turned out fine.

>It's just cornstarch.

That is not true, and TFA refers specifically to metal oxide nanoparticles that are used as anti-caking agents

Shredded cheese usually does use some form of starch, however. E.g. Great Value Shredded Cheese uses potato and tapioca starch: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Shredded-Mild-Cheddar...

It's plenty true that cornstarch and/or cellulose make packaged shredded cheese melt weird.

Or is your argument that metal oxide nanoparticles are the only anti-caking agents that are used?

I've noticed grated or powered cheese tasting less and less like cheese, presumably because of cellulose, anticaking, and anything else that they put in that costs less than cheese.

I've switched to grating cheese myself, even for a single person meal, doesn't take long and tastes SO much better.

The best cheese grater for 'e is the MouliGrater https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouli_grater . Especially the old ones as new ones have a tendency to be flimsy.

It's great for three reasons:

1 - it's the easiest and fastest grating device for cheese 2 - it's safe. Microplanes are great but it often happened that my cheese got a little bit of finger with it 3 - the texture and taste of the cheese is amazing. I can't explain it but it seems that the strands of cheese are thinner and longer . Whether it's on Parmigiano Reggiano or on old Comté it's just beautiful.

More on topic : never buy pre grated cheese. Or any thing pre-something.

I swear by pre-ground wheat. Cannot afford the time or counter space for a stone mill.

I'm forced to infer the US(?) Makes much greater use of pregrated cheese compared to Europe.

Grating cheese isn't exactly an onerous task, and the result tastes better, and a grater isn't expensive, so...

My biggest issue is cleaning the grater - for a single meal, it's nice to just be able to pour a bit from a bag and be done. If I use a grater, I have to get the cheese out, grate it, and clean the grater.

That said, I do prefer the result of the grated cheese.

I made a joke about not milling my own flour (after which I did some research and found that some very reasonable-sized mills can be had for an exhorbitant fee). I actually grate my own cheese.

But! Do you make dishes with over a pound of cheese in them?

Same here. But to be fair, I did have some bread made from freshly ground (and freshly dried) wheat once, and it was amazing.

Ohhhh, we used to have one of these when I was a kid. So great - much better than anything I have in my kitchen now.

(It made up for walking to school 5 miles, uphill in both directions, in the snow ;) )

IKEA sells a container set with grater lids and then a sealing lid. We get our kids to grate the cheese (and they fight over the opportunity) and excess cheese is stored in the fridge for the next meal. Or as you probably do, just grate straight onto the food.

https://www.ikea.com/au/en/p/uppfylld-grater-with-container-...

You can also get mason jar grater lids, which work with mason jars and lids you may already have in your kitchen. Bonus, they are made in the USA. https://www.microplane.com/mason-jar-lid-grater

Microplanes are a goddamned revelation.

Such an improvement over the dull graters I grew up with.

Apparently their patent on the chemically etched blade process expired so there should be more direct competition, but I haven’t explored alternatives.

Microplanes = very small holes, right? My experience was that cheese shredded that small dissolved/melted and lost it's flavor too fast when mixed with other foods and it was a lot of effort to grate any decent amount.

Instead of holes one kind they make has little blades like a wood plane does, works great for parm and grating zest

Yeah they're only good for very hard cheeses like parmesan and friends. Useful for a lot of other non-cheese things too, good tool. Just not a replacement for a cheese grater really.

You clearly haven't tried the ones with big teeth; grating soft cheeses like mozzarella is a dream.

You grate mozzarella?

Just tear it, or slice it.

No, they have a wide variety of hole sizes in their lineup. They're just very sharp graters, far easier to use than most other sorts.

A quick hack if you have no alternative handy is to throw in a slice of American cheese to counter the additives.

I've noticed that better quality grated cheese tends to behave better. E.g. Tillamook grated cheese melts nicely for me.

Colby Jack is the least Frankensteinian of the melted cheese options. Curds of two cheeses pressed and aged together. Colby is the same microbe as cheddar (cheddar turns out to be a verb, not a flavor, and Colby skips the processing).

I go through a lot of bricks of Tillamook's Colby Jack.

Tillamook makes great cheese. They're also one of the only mass-produced ice creams I can find these days that doesn't have any gums or carageenan added to it

edit: they might have begun adding gums. I have to buy Jeni's or Van Leeuwen. Ought to just make my own with how little I eat anyway.

Yeah they have but it’s still better than most

You could also check out Häagen-Dazs if it is available in your market.

Well thank you for the suggestion and I am pleasantly surprised. I had written that brand off for a long time knowing that it was a made-up word and made by Nestle... the ingredients appear very clean and quality though

Food processor with a grating disk. (I think I have a Breville.) I am a stickler for freshly-grated cheese. This sometimes delayed dinner.

I bought a food processor specifically to grate mozzarella for pizzas. I still pretty much only use it for that reason. Hah. Used to take me like 5 min to grate a lb of cheese. Now I blast through a block of cheese with the fury of 1200 watts in 30 seconds. Amazing

For me, fondue! Hand grating pounds of cheese on a box is tough. But it’s flaming garbage with the packaged stuff.

How much cheese are you grating?

Block cheese and cheese grater attachment on Kitchen aid is drastically tastier. Very quick.

Pre grated cheese? Why not just get proper cheese?

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