Vigo County Historical Society

Kitchen gadgets alleviate work grating on your nerves

Kitchen gadgets--mankind’s attempt to make housework easier. The Vigo County Historical Museum has a number of such inventions. In the lower level, you can find several inventive ways to chop cabbage, grind coffee and churn butter--to name a few. The job of getting nutmeg chopped small enough to be used in recipes led to the invention of many other gadgets. Some inventions look like small coffee grinders. Others resemble a small, flat vegetable grater, yet other gadgets use the vegetable grater concept but have a curved grating surface.

Today’s Historical Treasure is an unusual design for grating nutmeg. It not only does a fine job of grating, it also protects your fingers from being part of your recipe. The nutmeg nut is placed in a spring-loaded holder that presses the nut against the grating surface. Grating is done when you hold onto both knobs and move the nut holder portion up and down the grating surface.

This unique grater cam from the Blanche Rippetoe estate and was donated by Mrs. Waldo Mitchell.

You can find the grater in the current exhibit, "Hoosier Homemakers," in the main exhibit room. Stop by the museum and see the display. There is surely something on exhibit that will job your memory or teach you something about the past. Then try to find other unique kitchen gadgets throughout the museum.