When it comes to cheese, who can make UK grate again?

COMPARED to the French, the British tend to have more simple tastes when it comes to cheese. And this, it would seem, even applies to grating.

A poll had found that, on a classic four-sided box grater, 84 per cent of Britons use the side with the medium raindrop-shaped holes – although in strict culinary terms this isn’t actually considered grating, but shredding.

Only one in three use the side with the smaller raindrop-shaped holes, which is also technically for shredding.

Even fewer, 14 per cent, use the side with the small prickly holes, which is the only side that is technically for grating.

The least used side of the grater, the survey by Yougov found, was the side with wide holes for shaving cheese, which a mere 12 per cent of respondents said they employed.

Seven per cent of those surveyed said they had never used a cheese grater.

Ben Glanville, head of Yougov Omnibus, said: “Here at Yougov, we do occasionally like to explore the lesserdiscussed dilemmas that we face in everyday life.

“Our survey suggests that, perhaps all along, Britons have been too embarrassed to ask what each side is actually for, while sticking resolutely to their favourite.”

As well as grating matters, the polling company also investigated how people dealt with the culinary conundrum of grating when the lump becomes too small.

The most common solution, which 43 per cent of people admitted to, was to just eat it.

A further one in nine, or 11 per cent, said they put the too-small-to-grate chunk back into the packet, while 9 per cent added it in with the grated cheese.

However, 29 per cent said that no amount of cheese is too small not to grate and they risked their fingertips by grating until all the cheese had gone.