The Best Rasp Graters

We use rasp graters to zest citrus fruits and finely shred hard cheeses, ginger, shallots, garlic, nutmeg, and more. These specialized graters descend from carpentry rasps, traditional woodworking tools designed to file off tiny pieces of wood during carving. Rasps eventually made their way into the kitchen, where cooks learned to appreciate how their small teeth could shave different foods into delicate shreds. 

One company led the transition from woodshop to countertop: Grace Manufacturing. They pioneered and patented a chemical etching method that creates razor-sharp grating teeth. This process starts with a flat piece of metal, whereon a pattern of holes is photographically printed and then selectively eroded by acid. After the holes have been etched, the teeth are pushed up by a machine. These etched teeth usually sit at a low angle relative to the grating surface (or blade), which allows them to cut off only tiny portions with each grating pass. Grace used their etching patent to launch Microplane, one of the leading rasp-style grater brands. Grace’s patent expired in 2011, freeing other manufacturers to create their own versions of this handy tool.

There are two main styles of rasp graters. “Zesters” or “zester-style” models have relatively long, narrow blades similar to those of their carpentry rasp predecessors. Some testers preferred zesters because their slender blades felt nimbler and easier to maneuver around citrus and allowed for the precision pinpointing of ungrated patches of food. The long, straight zesters were also easy to store in most drawers or utensil crocks and could straddle the rims of large bowls. However, zesters’ narrow blades often made for relatively small grating surfaces, which made them less efficient than their wider paddle-style counterparts at grating most foods. They also left long, thin trenches in blocks of cheese and were slightly harder to clean, with sloped walls that occasionally trapped bits of food and made it difficult to dislodge them.

A new paddle-style grater design has gained popularity in recent years; its blades are shorter and wider. Paddle-style models were especially adept at efficiently grating ginger and garlic with swift, short, repetitive strokes, and we found them somewhat easier to perch against a cutting board. Because paddle graters generally have bigger surface areas than zesters, it’s easier to grate a larger volume of food faster with them, and they require less precision about where on the grating surface food is placed. The undersides of their wide blades were also easier to scrub with a sponge while cleaning, but their added bulk made them slightly more difficult to store in a utensil crock or drawer. 

We think both styles have merit, and we named a winner in each category. If you zest a lot of citrus and are looking for pinpoint accuracy, maneuverability, and easy storage, choose a zester. If you’re more interested in efficient grating and a tool that’s easier to clean, opt for a paddle.

• Large, Flat Blades: While the shape of the graters’ work surfaces varied according to their styles, we preferred models with grating surface areas measuring at least 7.25 square inches, as these allowed us ample room to grate efficiently. Grater blades that were flat, rather than curved, made it easier to balance food and allowed it to smoothly travel across the graters’ surfaces instead of sliding off. 

• Lots of Relatively Flat Teeth: Top-performing graters packed more teeth onto their grating surfaces, which helped them grate faster. Our favorites had more than 400 teeth, while our least favorite, slowest models had fewer than 300. Tooth design mattered too: Teeth that lay fairly flat against the grating surface—instead of protruding upward—cleanly sliced food and let it glide unencumbered, taking off just the right amount of peel or cheese in delicate, discrete shreds. 

• Staggered Teeth: The best graters had teeth that were arranged in staggered rows in a manner similar to how bricks are laid in a wall. This staggered pattern ensured that the entire surface of a lemon or garlic clove was grated, without leaving any ungrated patches. This arrangement also guided food straight down the length of the graters, rather than causing it to glance off toward either side, as we saw with blades with diagonal arrangements of teeth.

• Durable Blades and Teeth: Our favorite graters’ blades were made of durable, rigid stainless steel that didn’t warp or bend throughout testing. These models’ teeth also stayed sharp from the beginning of testing until the end—even after several durability tests designed to dull them.

• Rounded, Moderately Long, Grippy Handles: We preferred handles that measured between 4.5 and 4.75 inches long, which provided ample space for hands of different sizes. We also liked handles that had rounded edges and were made of soft, textured plastic; these were especially comfortable to use for longer periods.

Nice to Have

• Grippy Plastic Feet: Some models, including our favorites, had blades tipped with small patches of soft plastic that helped the graters grip cutting boards and bowl rims, stabilizing them during use. We thought them a helpful but nonessential addition.

• Narrow Blades: Some—but not all—zesters had especially slender grating surfaces that measured less than 7.25 square inches in total area. We had to be more careful about where on these blades we placed smaller foods to avoid running over the blade edges. These narrow-bladed graters also carved trenches into larger foods.

• Convex Blades: Blades that curved outward encouraged food to slide off to either side. 

• Not Enough Teeth: Some models had fewer than half the number of teeth of our favorites, which made for much slower grating. 

• Protruding Teeth: Teeth that jutted upward dramatically from the graters’ blades carved too deeply into food, taking off excess pith or thicker-than-desirable shreds of cheese. They also created too much drag as we slid food across them, requiring much more effort to grate and sometimes even stopping us mid-grate. It felt like we were fighting against these graters rather than working with them.

• Overly Flat Teeth: The opposite problem was also true; small teeth that lay too flat against the grating surface made ultrafine shreds of cheese that disappeared instantly when we sprinkled them over hot pasta. Additionally, they were much slower since they cut off less food with each pass—the slowest took nearly three times as long as our winners to grate identical portions of food. 

• Teeth Arranged in Arced or Diagonal Patterns: Some models’ teeth were arranged in a series of arcs rather than straight rows, and one grater’s teeth were arranged in diagonal columns down the length of the grater blade. Both configurations guided food off the cutting surface instead of straight down the blade. This stopped our grating strokes earlier than we anticipated and made it difficult to grate in an efficient motion. 

• Flimsy Blades or Teeth That Dulled: A few graters didn’t hold up to our durability tests. Their blades bent or bowed while grating hard nutmeg and felt increasingly flimsy as testing went on. Their teeth also dulled over the course of testing. Dull blades stopped creating tidy, separate shreds of zest or garlic and instead generated oily purees or pastes. 

• Short, Uncomfortable Handles: Short handles jutted into our palms, and hard, smooth plastic and metal handles were more likely to get slippery when wet. 

• Overly Long Graters: Whether their blades or handles were too long, models measuring 13 inches or more in total length felt too long and cumbersome no matter how we used them. Their extended blades felt harder to control in every test, and they were more difficult to store in a drawer or load into the dishwasher.