Things Lost in the Wake of Industry #1: Grating Cheese

So I grated cheese the other night--I know, so retro of me. People don't grate their own cheese anymore, do they? I mean, they sell the stuff already shredded and in ready-to-use, resealable packages! Why would you willingly grate your own cheese? It's just silly really--the dangerous dance between cheese, skin, and grater, the way the grated cheese sticks to itself--an inconvenience, and a dangerous inconvenience at that.

What did I gain from grating my own cheese, you ask? About 2 minutes of meditation time, and a surprisingly wicked burn in my upper arm from the back and forth motion. Also: a small Tupperware full of grated cheese that only cost me $1.50 instead of nearly $4, less packaging waste, and none of the fillers and additives that are currently found in today's shredded cheese products (and are terrible for you, like cornstarch).

When I cook, I love thinking about how or if someone could have or would have made what I am cooking 50-100 years ago. This is the kind of stuff I think about whilst cooking. Does that make me weird? God I hope so.