Grilled Cheese

[prasantrin]

btw -am I the only one that does *not* like grilled cheese with tomato soup? Ketchup is nice and tangy for dipping, the soup is...soup. Even if it's good, rich tomato soup, they seem to make each other bland to my tastes. Or am I a barbarian that I dunked my sandwich in the soup right off the bat?

I hate tomato soup. A friend once made me eat my beautiful grilled cheese with a bowl of tomato soup. It completely ruined the experience. Of course, she's also the one who introduced me to eating grilled cheese with ketchup. Evil girl!

Another good bread for grilled cheese is fergasa bread. It's a white bread, so it can still fit under the pure grilled cheese genus, but the green onions make it a slightly different species.

[Rachel Perlow]

Rachel... do you dip your grilled cheese into the tomato soup or eat it seperate?

Bite of sandwich, spoonful of soup, repeat. Try to come out even.

Do not dip, that ruins the crispness of the buttery grilled bread.

[fifi]

Bite of sandwich, spoonful of soup, repeat. Try to come out even.

Due to the perversity of the Gods... I never come out even.

[Rachel Perlow]

Ah, then you need to make another sandwich or get some more soup from the pot until you do.

[cakewench]

grilled cheese

My normal grilled cheese is made with Kraft singles, yellow mustard, butter on the outside of the white bread, grilled. Last few times I made them, I added garlic powder to the butter on the outside, and really liked that.

In high school, I used to make them with bacon, and used the bacon fat to grill them. I was also at a very unhealthy weight at that point in my life, go figure!

My mother introduced me to slightly more 'grown-up' grilled sandwiches, with large pieces of nutty bread, real cheeses (cheddar, swiss, whatever), mustard, turkey, etc... Yum.

Still, nothing beats the original. No ketchup, please.

[Holly Moore]

There is no better grilled cheese sandwich.

There is always a better grilled cheese sandwich beckoning us ever and ever on from the furthest horizon.

This is what it means to be human: to strive.

You haven't had my father's grilled cheese sandwich.

[Bux]

There are thousands of variations of the perfect grilled cheese sandwich.

What's the perfect bread with Velveeta? (he asks while ducking. At least I hope I have reason to duck and that you're prepared to throw a black skillet at me.)

This is but one:

Put sourdough bread under salamander (or broiler). Remove when nicely browned. Give these sides a quick swipe of Normandy cultured butter, a few drops of porcini oil. Layer every other piece with tallegio and a few shavings of pecorino and a few twists of black pepper. Place the blank but buttered and toasted sides atop. Butter the untoasted sides. Place under salamander. Turn with spatula. Remove. Slice.

Serve with wild mushroom bisque topped with a few sauteed chanterelles and a slice of roasted tomato.

I don't see the can of wild mushroom bisque, but there's a cream of mushroom that looks like a work of art. Will that do?

I can bring up the memory of the taste of grilled American cheese on white from my childhood and enjoy the memory, but I can't create the desire to actually taste one now. For a while my favorite was gruyere and ham with mustard on buttered New York rye bread and done in a skillet, although they can be prepared as Jinmyo's sandwich above and they are less greasy/buttery. More recently I've been enjoying fresh mozzarella with either sauteed mushrooms or prociutto on rather squishy little rolls from a local Italian bakery. These are best brushed with olive oil and pressed between two ridged skillets over a burner with the ridges facing inside. Maybe panini don't count. Here in NYC, I can get a very flat sort of focaccia that the Sullivan Street Bakery sells a pizza bianca. They are wonderful topped with sauteed onions and paper thin slices of pecorino romano, but I think it's really cheating to suggest they're grilled cheese sandwiches.

[megaira]

Ketchup is grotesque.

Yeah yeah, no one's making YOU eat it.

[megaira]

Ah, then you need to make another sandwich or get some more soup from the pot until you do.

It's the oreo/milk paradox!

Soup/dipping... ah, see, I dipped right off the bat and it turned into a soggy, bland mess. Not dipping makes much more sense...and a sharp chedder would be good.

Still like my ketchup though.

[tommy]

buttered wonder. american. cast iron grill pan.

[fifi]

buttered wonder. american. cast iron grill pan.

If you are talking the American in the blue (?) box like the Velvetta, I am with you.

[IrishCream]

Velveeta? I have always wondered what it was....I am quite sure it is not cheese. Anyway, while I would never dip them in ketchup, I do like sliced ripe tomato in my sandwich. But when I feel like making the effort, my fave is a piece of good toast topped with (in order) tomato, crisp bacon, good cheese and run under the broiler til hot and melted. Yum.

[denise_jer]

I love grilled cheese on Brownberry's Health Nut Bread! I know that makes it less healthy, but it gets really nice and crispy and the sunflower seeds get a little toasty....mmmm. Sometimes I use Velveeta, sometimes munster, sometimes a super sharp cheddar. The munster is really good if you also slip a slice of smoked turkey and some whole grain mustard in there too!

[howard88]

Just love grilled cheese.

I use white with american, swiss, or muenster.

Cast iron.

Gotta have thinly sliced tomato, preheated before it goes in the sandwich and salted.

Or: lettuce also preheated

Or: sliced hot cherry peppers.

The addition of tomato or lettuce or peppers completes the sandwich for me.

[Basilgirl]

I love the classic. However, have recently discovered bacon and cheddar grilled on raisin bread. Sounds weird, tastes good.

[DaleJ]

Heresy. Try this once.

Firm white bread, storebought mozzarella (sliced to about 1/4"), proscuitto (optional if it disqualifies product as "toasted cheese"), NO BUTTER.

Preheat cast iron skillet. Place sandwich in it. Place another heavy skillet on top of sandwich. Place 26 oz. can of tomatoes (unopened) on top. Check progress from time to time. When browned, flip and replace weights. Check progress from time to time. When browned, remove.

Got this method from watching barmen at Italian bars toast cicchetti.

The best.

[tommy]

buttered wonder.  american.  cast iron grill pan.

If you are talking the American in the blue (?) box like the Velvetta, I am with you.

nah. just regular ol' Land o Lakes is crappy enough.

[Basilgirl]

NO BUTTER.

Heresy.

[sherribabee]

NO BUTTER.

Heresy.

No butter? NO BUTTER???

Might as well not have cheese either then.

[Toliver]

Heresy.  Try this once.

Firm white bread, storebought mozzarella (sliced to about 1/4"), proscuitto (optional if it disqualifies product as "toasted cheese"),  NO BUTTER.

Preheat cast iron skillet.  Place sandwich in it.  Place another heavy skillet on top of sandwich.  Place 26 oz. can of tomatoes (unopened) on top.  Check progress from time to time.  When browned, flip and replace weights.  Check progress from time to time.  When browned, remove.

Got this method from watching barmen at Italian bars toast cicchetti.

The best.

Nooooooooo.

This not a grilled cheese sandwich.

I believe the weighted-down sandwich is called a panini (sp? Just where is that spellcheck feature?).

Now if we were talking about a Dagwood, then I could see weighting it down to make it, at least, bite-able.

But who'd want to squish their grilled cheese sandwich? It's thin enough as it is.

edited to add: I think what makes a grilled cheese a grilled cheese is the butter on the bread.

No butter, no grilled cheese.

Edited November 14, 2003 by Toliver (log)

[krisdata]

I'm a big fan of comfort food, so in my house we use your generic plastic-wrapped American cheese slices, although we use wheat bread in deference to my husband's taste. On days where I pretend I'm dieting, I use that butter flavored cooking spray instead of butter--it actually gives the sandwich a nice crispy exterior, if not all of the buttery goodness of the real thing.

However, when I get creative, I really like gruyere and sauteed mushrooms, occassionally thinly sliced deli chicken, on whatever fresh bread I get from the market. I wouldn't taint such a sandwich with the butter spray...

[Mayhaw Man]

I am a huge fan of grilled, homemade pimiento cheese and tomato sandwiches. I like to slightly butter a griddle pan and toast the WHOLE sandwich (made with whole wheat or sourdough_ at once until fairly dark.

[sherribabee]

Hmmmm...we're having a grilled cheese day at work next week. We have a Snoopy sandwich maker in the office (makes the sandwich in the shape of Snoopy's or Charlie Brown's head) and a few of my lunch buddies decided to make grilled cheese with it one day. They turned out pretty well. So...we're all chipping in to buy a loaf of Wonderbread, American cheese, butter and tomatoes and soup and just have a grilled cheese lunch. YUM! Can't wait.

[elyse]

I'm jealous.

[JAZ]

Still, for some grilled cheese is a "comfort food" which means that the remembered palate of a five-year old child is the standard by which things are judged.

I do think that for many, part of the lure of the grilled cheese sandwich is the childhood memory factor.

In my childhood, my mother made our grilled cheese sandwiches with American or mild cheddar cheese, on white bread, but with yellow mustard (the only kind you could find in our town back then). After grilling, though -- and tell me if this isn't unique -- we'd squeeze honey over the top (or open them up and squeeze it inside). I firmly believe that my mother could have made a fortune had she capitalized back then on her fondness for honey and mustard together. Alas, she didn't.

These days, I still love just about any variation of grilled cheese sandwiches. Every once in a while, I'll make one of my mother's versions. It's not the best, but sometimes, it's the only one I want.