How do you make a grilled cheese sandwich? | Hacker News Reader

How do you make a grilled cheese sandwich?

9 pointsJoel_Mckay22 comments

Let the world know if you have perfected a sandwich stack build process. Note, Panini stacks are also acceptable.

Cheers, =)

At home? Heat a cast-iron skillet on the burner, with a pat of butter to melt. Cut two slices of whole-grain bread and spread each inside face with Dijon mustard. Assemble the sandwich with a healthy portion of Muenster or Havarti. Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise on each outside face and drop into the heated skillet. Toast on each side until both are browned. Cut on a diagonal and eat with tomato soup.

At festivals, I like to make people grilled cheese sandwiches with a flamethrower, rapid-fire, as a late-night performance thing. The ingredients are much simpler: bags of sliced bread, boxes of Kraft singles, and cooking spray.

One at a time, each hungry person pops their slices of bread and cheese into a long-handled campfire panini press. They hold the press out and away, then I light it up with the flamethrower for a 30 count. On my signal, they flip the press over, and I hit it again for 30 more seconds. Ta-da! The sandwich is ready. Pop it out, spritz the inside of the press with cooking spray, and the next person in line steps up to take their turn.

It's a lot of fun - the light and noise of the flamethrower attracts a lot of attention. People come to watch the show, then stick around to get a sandwich for themselves.

The best bread is the squishy kind (humblest of opinions, I'm sure), which is rather difficult to butter without making a crumby mess. Despite my general distrust of mayonnaise, it spreads like a dream. I do prefer the flavor of butter, so perfection is achieved by buttering frozen bread and then letting it come to room temperature. I don't have time for that crap, so mayo wins.

Shredded, melty cheese is optimal. If you're in Wisconsin, please mail me some Bleu Cheddar. I recently had some truffle-flavored cheddar, which was otherwise overwhelming but in this case divine. Shredded cheese is more uniform than whatever I can quickly produce with a chef knife; a cheese plane is probably fine but mine is attached to a big grater which is annoying to use.

The real important part is the griddle. Specifically, get it to temperature before it touches the bread. I use a cast iron pan, and flick water droplets on the pan to test the temperature. I flip three times, and smash it with the spatula after the first two flips. The goal is that the bread should be golden brown on both sides at the same time that the cheese has completely melted. As far as I can tell, this depends on every variable in your kitchen, and dialing in the perfect sandwich necessitates delicious science.

why not just melt some butter in the microwave and brush it on with a basting brush?

Probably inadequate technique on my part, but when I've tried that I've either used too much or too little and either way the texture is ruined.

Nobody makes them like we did when I was a kid.

We toasted a slice of bread halfway. Then we cut it parallel to the face, from the top almost through to the bottom. We opened it up, put Velveeta cheese in there, and mustard, pepper, garlic powder. We closed it up and toasted it the rest of the way.

When I was a kid, I liked it, but now I don't like grilled cheese sandwiches (that way or any other way).

Mustard is a must in a good grilled cheese. Personally I like swiss, boring yellow mustard, tomato, red onion.

As a non-American, who hasn’t grown up with “grilled cheese sandwiches” but is nonetheless culturally aware of them: I always assumed this is what you called a “toasted sandwich”. However, I’ve since been led to believe that this is not the case and the comments here further confirm that. It thus leads me to one simple question:

Why are they “grilled”, when they’re clearly fried?

They are definitely not fried in the usual meaning of that word.

Indeed, most seem to pan sear, and or broil the bread.

1. At least 2 different cheeses that work well together.

2. Bread shouldn't be too thick (so the cheese can melt).

3. Use butter (on the outside of the bread and/or in the pan).

The only technique is to manage the temperature - lower temperature for longer time allows the cheese melt. You want melted cheese on the inside without burning the bread and takes a bit of practice.

Mythical Kitchen have a good video on it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuP3GLXxgY0 - Josh does a great job of explaining the important points while also kind of roasting Gordon Ramsey who famously ruined something as basic as grilled cheese in one of his videos.

Many people like cheddar but, to me, cheddar is not gooey enough do I always go back to american.

It's funny but as easy as it is to make a grilled cheese sandwich few places can make it well.

2 Slices of bread

2 slices of American cheese

Butter

-Put the 2 slices of cheese in between the 2 slices of bread

-Butter the outside of the slices

-In a pan, iron skillet is best, melt a liberal amount of butter. Don't let it burn

-In the pan, brown both sides of the sandwich

-Cover the pan while the sides are browning

-Once the sides have browned, make sure the cheese has melted. If it hasn't, lower the heat and cover the pan until the cheese has melted.

-Once the cheese has melted, remove and cut.

Enjoy the gooeyness!

Butter one side of bread, brown that side of the bread, then butter the other side, flip the bread over, continue browning. Add shredded cheese to both sides, wait until cheese is visibly melted. Combine bread at the end to form sandwich - not mid-cooking.

Mostly I just find it important for the bread to be fully crispy on both sides, rather than crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.

I used to have a really fancy recipe, but after having a kid I made one with just American cheese and white bread for the first time in like 12 years and unfortunately it blew away mine.:/

Main thing is to shred the cheese before so it melts evenly. If you want to "press" it but don't have a press, put foil on top and then weigh it down with a can

Pan on the stove, butter the outside of two slices of bread with one slice of processed cheese in the middle. Cook on medium low until golden brown.

Buttered bread, cheese and tomato, fry on pan.

Mayo on the outside of the bread.

Mayonnaise, NOT butter, on the outside of the bread. Fontina on the inside.

> Mayonnaise, NOT butter

The internet told me this would be good and it really wasn't. Probably just different tastes though.

Could try smoked white cheddar on a sourdough rye, broiled with butter, and served with a sliced crisp garlic pickle.

pure swiss cheese with plant based butter and find artisan sourdough bread.

cheese on a french batard in the oven on broil until it melts. top with Pudliszki spicy ketchup.

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