I used to do the pan-fried with butter routine, which is still the best method IMO.
Nowdays, I have to use gluten-free bread and it doesn’t stand up to this method very well. Therefore, I make toasted cheese. I toast the bread, lay cheese (and whatever else comes to hand) on the bread and stick it under the broiler for a bit. It’s very yummy, but it’s not the same as the sandwich.
I’m getting a page not found sort of thingy.
The parmesan-butter spread on the outside of the sandwich is probably a lot like Sizzler toast.
~VOW
You did your linky wrong.
I do it your first way. When I was in Weight Watchers I would put the cheese on a slice of bread and broil it in the toaster oven. It would melt the cheese and toast the bread. I usually used shredded mozzarella, and it was pretty good.
Sandwich press. Two slices of bread (wholemeal) + cheese. No butter or margarine. I think it tastes fine. I think cheese is fatty enough without having to add butter.
So does Weight Watchers. Hence the least delicious, most eaten of grilled cheeses.
Am I the only one who puts both slices of bread in the pan at the same time, with cheese on each, then puts them together when browned? It’s a slight time saver in the event of an emergency grilled cheese sandwich.
I’m with StuffLikeThatThere.
Definitely buttering the bread. It’s not right otherwise. It’s not even messy if you don’t assemble the sandwich until it’s put in the pan, apparently some people are silly and assemble during prep. I always mix two types of cheese. Usually american and swiss, sometimes provolone if that’s what I have, or really any type. Serve with tomato soup (made with milk, little butter, salt, and pepper. Basil too if it’s for adults), if you have it, for maximum effect. I’ve made it this way for years and all the kids I’ve babysat insisted on me making it repeatedly saying it’s better than their parents’ ones. (Seriously there was a time I was called on to make grilled cheese and tomato soup or my french toast - which is awesome - or both every day for a month. And sometimes their parents would want my french toast when they got home. I kind of miss those days.)
If I have a weird need for not just cheese I will occasionally put jam in the center (friend got me doing it. Very weird but it grew on me, so on rare occasions). And if there were ever any in the house I would totally add mushrooms to the cheese sometimes, I bet it would be awesome. But the king will always be my classic grilled cheese outlined above with american and swiss.
Definitely the first way, butter on the outside and cheese on the inside. That ham and apple variation sounds most intriguing and I think I have both in the kitchen. I foresee some tasty experimentation for lunch soon.
I start with thick-cut bread I’ve cut myself. Brush olive oil on one side of each piece of bread. Put both, oil side down, in a pan until starting to brown. Brush olive oil onto the side-up of each piece and flip when first side is brown. Add cheese (cheddar and goat for me) and assemble sandwich in the pan, flip once the third side is browned, and as fourth side is browning everything gets melty and perfect.
I use olive oil because I’m lazy. Of course melted butter is delicious, it’s just one more step.
Assemble sandwich dry, just bread and cheese. Melt butter in a cast iron pan, dip the top slice of bread in the melted butter put back on top, then put the sandwich in the pan. Fry on low, to get a nice light brown crisp on the bread with fully melted cheese. No add ons inside the sandwich, i find that ruins the structural integrity. Grilled cheese should be a neat, tidy sandwich, not something that spills out all over the plate.
Turn the oven on to medium.
Put whatever cheese I have in the house - yellow, feta, Camembert, Boursin - on slices of bread.
Place the slices, open-face, on the oven rack.
Wait until the bread is toasted and the cheese is melted.
Eat.
Damn…thanks for fixing it!
Butter in pan. Fry one side of each slice of bread. Assemble sandwich with fried side in. Re-butter pan and fry outside of sandwich, both sides.
Note to self: MUST TRY THIS! Although the last time I tried this (sans mustard), the tomato was too juicy & the sandwich didn’t fry up enough :mad:
This link should probably accompany that one.
Turned a toaster on its side when I was 12.
Anyway my method is to put butter in the pan, spead it around, then plop in bread, marbled rye is my preference. The cheese is velveeta, nothing melts better which is put on after the bread just starts to toast. Turn the other piece onto the cheese, then sprinkle parmesian all over the bread, flip it over and let it toast for about 15 seconds.
Spread margarine (which spreads more easily than butter) on two slices of bread, while heating up the cast-iron fajita pan I bought at a yard sale for $2. Put a slice of bread, ‘buttered’-side down on the pan. Add two slices of American cheese. Top with the other slice of bread. Cook over low heat until toasted. Turn and toast the other side. Slice the sandwich on the diagonal.
On occasion I’ll use olive oil instead of margarine.
This is the way I do it at home. I think it’s important to get that hot butter on the inside of the sandwich to help melt the cheese a bit.
Here is my healthy version invention that has spread like wildfire at our company cafeteria:
Select a long multi-grain roll
Slice the roll and apply a healthy amount of olive tapenade to both of the insides
Add your choice of cheese (I use a combination of muenster and pepperjack)
Make sure that there is equal cheese on both halves
Add 3 slices of tomato
Add 5-6 sliced hot peppers (this is optional)
Put the halves back together and put into the sandwich press
Grab your sides/drinks and come back in 5 minutes
The best part of this is that they charge us the price of the grilled cheese sandwich, $4.45, which is the cheapest sandwich available!
I regret sharing this with others because now they sometimes run out of the long multi-grain rolls by the time I make it down there for lunch.
