1940s Mouli grater
If you have one of these cluttering up a kitchen drawer, it’s a tool from nearly 80 years ago.
Called a mouli grater, the two-part device has a little square hinged basket that flips back and forth, or open and closed, and that sits on a cylindrical grating wheel along with the ingredient — often hard cheese — to be grated.
Those parts, in turn, are held in place by the second part, another hinged arm with a curved shovel-like blade that flips around so you can clamp and press the food into the grating rotary with the desired pressure.
The mouli takes two hands: one to clamp and one to crank. Unlike scissors, it’s ambidextrous so both sinistrals and dextrals can use it.
Apparently, the mouli was an early precursor brand to coffee-grinder Moulinex, which appeared in the late-1950s.
The company, it seems, likes to grate and grind things. I get that.
(Image/Wikimedia Commons)
