What is your Grilled Cheese method?

Croque monsieur ham cheese butter béchamel, croque madame with an egg.

 

Lots of great variations on a grilled cheese sandwich.

I tend to prefer a sourdough bread, but I've had good results with sliced Italian or French styles of bread (I'm not talking about the huge loaves you might make garlic bread with). I like a sharp/aged cheddar as well, better still is Beecher's Flagship, which I believe to be a sharp cheddar/gruyere mix. Trader Joe's has a similar cheese they call "unexpected cheddar" that is a sharp cheddar/parmesan blend. Or something like Gouda for a really creamy, melty cheese. Cheeses like mozzarella or Monterey Jack wouldn't be my first choice on their own but can be great paired with a sharp cheddar, as can a good Swiss cheese.

All that said, you still can't go wrong with something as basic as a chewy white bread and a mild cheddar or a deli-style American cheese.

 

Hey if you Americans are so mixed up about food terminology that you think grilled food is fried then I’d say give it a decade or so and you’ll have an obesity problem on your hands...

 

...we're amateurs, for sure. We've a long way to go to catch up with a country that deep fries butter balls...

 

Feel free to put it on the griddle and call it anything you like!

 

Actually, I do that when making a grilled cheese in a pan.

When a waffle iron is available, I’ll do it in a waffle iron, too.

Mine involves sharp cheddar, bacon, a sprinkle of shredded Parmesan and a little love.

 

What is bug juice?

 

My thoughts exactly.

It's the right choice. It's got the proper melt characteristics, and the mild flavor doesn't overpower the crispy, golden, buttery flavors of the sandwich. Something like aged Cheddar will not have the same smooth, creamy melt profile, the casein proteins will contract and cause the cheese to oil off as it melts, the texture won't be right, and the assertive flavor will dominate. Aged Cheddar has its uses. A grilled cheese is not one of them. It's inappropriate.

Brands like Boar's head, Land O'Lakes, and even Kraft, make American Cheese (not "cheese product") which are available at most deli counters. Even most supermarket brands are American Cheese.

Anything that comes individually wrapped is to be shunned.

.

 

I would think being an adult would be enough reason.

 

Yep WAFFLE IRON BUTTER BOTH SIDES.

 

Lightly spritz the outside of the bread with olive oil (the real stuff), then white cheddar extra sharp and a thin layer of mayo on one slice of bread, I cook it slow too.
Comes out super crisp on the outside and cheesy yum yum in the middle.

 

I’ve not come across a deep fried butter ball... I do come from the land of the deep fried pizza and the deep fried Mars Bar... but we don’t tell people we’ve ‘grilled’ them!

 

Hmm. Maybe things have changed since I stopped selling it. I might have to go see if it’s still on the market!

 

mayo works so much better than butter

 

There some good ideas here. I’ve only got one variation that hasn’t been mentioned yet. Instead of butter or mayo I paint the outside of the bread with olive oil. A little one inch basting brush works well. Even better is a flavored olive oil...jalapeño works great!

 

...the term dates back to the days of a bar and grill - when a grill meant a large flat stainless steel (or other metallic) cooking surface, that was used to cook everything from fried eggs to steaks to onions and "grilled" cheese - just one of those things where the same word has different meanings. Like the Stone of Scone...

 

Any oil would work to encourage browning. I like the butter for flavor.

 

For the home, the best toaster I have found is the Breville convection oven the smallest one. Incredible toast. I made a 12 inch Pizza in it that would be hard to rival. And, I'd have to guess it makes a mean grilled cheese sandwich.They are costly and worth every penny.

 

For what we typically call “grilled cheese” I butter the bread as described, and use the American processed cheese stuff slices. It’s what I ate with tomato soup as a little kid on cold winter days, and I like it.

For a more serious cheese concoction I use good bread, nice thick slices of some artisan loaf or similar or homemade. It has to have some body to it. I butter the bread, lay thick slices of sharp cheddar, strips of sweet red pepper, some bacon crumbles are nice then broil ‘em until the bread browns and the cheese is near flowing. Tomato slices are also great on top if just barely ripe. Mmmm mmmm mmmm!

 

Yup. If it were a "cheese food", a "cheese product", or a "cheese spread", it would have to be labeled as such according to food labeling laws.