The best grilled cheese?

1. Use a cast-iron pan (or if you’re going for authentic, do it over low heat on a charcoal grill)
2. Use good-quality bread (par-baked sourdough baguettes are good)
3. Butter both sides and grill one side before adding cheese (this will become the inside)
4. American cheese is a natural, or use a mix of cheddar, jack, & provolone
5. Lightly salt & pepper both slices of the exterior while it cooks

Start by melting butter in a frying pan. Once melted, put the sandwich in. (sandwich=white bread + american cheese slice) While letting the bottom of the sandwich cook, put 3–4 slivers of butter on the non-cooked side of the grilled cheese. Once the bottom is cooked, flip over the sandwich, and use your spatula to flaten the grilled cheese a little. (so the bread and cheese become one) The other side takes less time to cook, so make sure you keep an eye on it. Once finished, take out your grilled cheese, and cut diagonally.

Take a lactaid pill before you try this (I do at least):

First, grate romano cheese and/or parmesan, a little garlic (minced), pepper and parsley (this will be for the outside);

Next, shred chedder, monterey jack, and swiss (optional), and blend by hand;

Butter thick slices of sourdough, and place on cast-iron skillet, butter-side down;

Place a thin ‘sheet’ of the cheddar, monterey jack and swiss on top of the non-buttered sides (the sides facing up);

Fold one slice on top of the other; place romano/parmesan, garlic, pepper and parsely on the butter top, and flip immediately (this will be the “A” side of the sandwich that cooks first); after flip, repeat the top spread for the “B” side.

As soon as you start to see slight “gooing” of the middle cheese layer, flip, and press down once with spatula to even out;

Garnish with pickles, tomato, red onion, dijon mustard, and olives on the side.

p.s. another great recipe for a grilled sandwich (NO CHEESE) is to grill Peanut Butter and Jelly on Sourdough (Bread, PB n J, and butter only). It’s the best of sweet and salty in one! Now on to the gym you go!

I second @jstringham21. I think you absolutely need white bread and american cheese for a grilled cheese.

I might add a side of tater tots or Lays plain potato chips with that…and a glass of nice cold milk.

as #1 above but also include a few pieces of chopped onion and, if you really want to go crazy, sliced tomato. Yum!

Provolone cheese is divine.

Hmmm, have I had lunch yet?!

The best grilled cheese I’ve ever had was 6 different cheeses melted together between two pieces of foccacia bread and served with a spicy tomato basil soup. It might be fun to play with that and see what kind of awesomeness occurs.

Colby jack cheese and potato bread, country crock spread on one side of each slice and tomato soup to dunk it in…. yummy ;*)

Grilled Swiss and creamy peanut butter on sourdough. When I used to eat meat I put bacon in there as well. Sound weird? It really tastes fantastic.

If you like cheddar, nothing beats Tillamook. If you like it really sharp, just buy the cheaper variety, place it in the back of the fridge and in three months, you have the black wax kind. That’s what they do, you’re just paying for them to store it.

I do love Irish cheddar, though it’s really expensive here and when I buy it, it keeps disappearing from the fridge. The next best and a lot cheaper is the New Zealand white cheddar that Trader Joe’s sells.

I don’t like “plastic” cheese at all. To me it is tasteless and you might as well eat the wrapper and save some money.

No, AC, that sounds great. Gold star for you on that one!

I take one please!!

want a fast grilled cheese that’s not really grilled? Toast the bread, throw on a couple slices of cheese, put it in the microwave to melt the cheese. Voilà! Haha you can eat in 40 seconds.

Ow! You over zapped it! And now the corners are hard.

Hahaha yeah I’ve had that happen a couple times. I dont like to cook, dont like spending time in the kitchen , wish I had my own chef. Oh well.

For my mother 84 year old vegetarian,
Bread – Peteridge Farms whole wheat, sometimes rye bread.
Cheese – Prov or Sharp
Additional item – very very thinly sliced apples without peel. I use tart green or pink lady. Also to get the thinest, I use a mandolin.
Additional item – from time to time I use a light coating (one the inside) of honey roasted smooth peanut butter.

For my own grilled cheese
Bread – Sarah Lee whole wheat white
Cheese – prov.

Either sandwitch, I use real butter, softened and spread on the bread.
I use a emamale coated cast iron pan on low – med low heat until slightly golden.
You may want to put a plate on top of the sandwich, this will give it some pressure with out flatting the sandwich and keeps some of the heat in. Also you may not want to butter the top slice of bread until ready to turn over.

Butter other side and turn, replacing plate.

You might want to use a different plate to serve the sandwich on, it will have butter on the bottom.

Do any of these in a waffle iron or, faster, a George Forman grill. You get nice little grill marks, it toasts both sides at once so it only takes bout 40 seconds, and the cheese that runs out of the sandwich gets turned into a lacey crispy extra condiment like a potato chip. Do put
a salted-and-peppered thin slice of tomato in, though mghb’s mama’s thin apple slices sound even better.

I like to use a fairly airy but seed- or whole-grain-containing sandwich bread like Poulsbo (which is a local PNW number), a little skin of mayo, just a scrape, on the inside, and any cheese I can find in the fridge, or a mix of kinds. The tomato or the apple, and the glass of milk, or maybe something fizzy and sweet. This is the moment for a full-bore Pepsi over ice.

I love using oatmeal bread.

For the cheese, either Kraft Old English sliced cheddar or sliced colby jack.

Nice to add slices of a fresh hothouse tomato when in season.

A variation on the grilled cheese sandwich that is quite tasty is to use raisin bread.
not with tomatoes, though but cheddar goes nicely with the raisin bread, or for a creamy sandwich try cream cheese. The neufatchel kind spreads easily and melts quicker.

wow, thank you so much everyone. Great responces

“Gourmet” variations on the classic are ok I guess, but nothing, and I mean nothing beats the classic.

Fluffy, white (and nutritionally irrelevant, of course) bread, wonder, bunny, etc.
Real butter in the pan, melt bread, two slices of kraft american, bread, flip.

Dip in plain old tomato soup.

I love cooking, and trying new things, but this is one of those things that is just never the same for me when it’s made any other way.

My favorite is just white or wheat bread, lots of butter on both sides, two slices of yellow american cheese and a little bit of garlic salt in the middle.

the best grilled cheese have tasted is the cheese used withpancakes