How to Make the Ultimate Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Grilled cheese is the ultimate comfort food.  It’s an adult treat that harkens back to childhood.  I ate many a grilled cheese sandwiches as a kid and I never met a grilled cheese sandwich that I didn’t like.

Where I grew up, there was an old-fashioned drug store with a lunch counter.  When the weather was good, my best friend and I would ride our bikes to it and order grilled cheese and made to order orange-ades.  This grilled cheese was made with fluffy white bread and American cheese on a griddle.  It had one slice of cheese between the bread and was as thin as a sandwich can possibly be as the bread was compressed during the grilling process.  Still, I have a vivid and mouthwatering taste memory of this grilled cheese as if I ate it yesterday.

At home, grilled cheese meant swiss cheese and rye bread, or Roman Meal bread stuffed with sharp cheddar and grilled in a pan.  I loved all three variations equally.  When I lived in Chicago and was in need of comfort food, I would frequent a Greek diner and order a grilled swiss cheese on rye with bacon—enough said!

Recently, I have been making my own grilled cheese.  And, to make the ultimate grilled cheese,  I have mashed up the best grilled cheese sandwiches of my memory.  I use a sturdy white bread, Pepperidge Farm original white is my top choice.  I use one slice of American cheese, a.k.a. melty cheese, on each side to hold everything together and then add a thick slice of whatever cheese I have on hand.  It is usually, muenster, swiss or sharp cheddar—but you can even use pimento cheese if it doesn’t have too much mayo in it.

I used to butter the bread and try to “grill” the sandwich on the stove top in a non-stick skillet. But invariably, the cheese was still cold in the middle when the outside of the bread was brown.  Continued cooking burned the bread and the cheese was never melted enough.  Making a grilled cheese in a panini maker solved these problems but then it wasn’t a grilled cheese per se, it was a crisp flattened cheese bread.  I wanted to re-create the perfect drug-store grilled cheese with more and better cheese between the bread.

Instead of spreading the bread with butter or mayo, I took a note from the drugstore griddle and put a small bit of butter in the pan.  Once it was melted, I swirled the bread in the butter, adding a thin coat to one side of the bread. I removed one piece of bread, stacked the cheese on the bread and topped it with the other slice of bread—butter-side out.  If you want to add any other ingredients like bacon, tomato, mushrooms, caramelized onions, etc., now is the time to do it. And a quick tip, I keep my bread in the freezer and start out with frozen bread. The rigid bread helps keep the structure of the sandwich intact before the cheese starts to melt and holds everything together.  It also slows down the browning [burning] of the bread.

Making sure the heat isn’t any higher than medium, I let the bread toast for 1-2 minutes or until crisp and lightly brown.  I turn my sandwich to brown the other side of the bread. I have to do this carefully because the cheese isn’t melted yet so it doesn’t hold together on it’s own.  If you mess up the alignment of the bread, don’t worry, at this stage you can easily re-align it.

Next,  I pop it into a preheated 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 2-4 minutes depending on the thickness of the cheese and your bread.  This is the key to the whole sandwich. I leave the sandwich in the non-stick skillet and place it in the oven so that the cheese can melt completely but the bread won’t burn.  It takes about 3-4 minutes for the cheese to melt and at that point, your grilled cheese is ready.  Remove from the heat and slice on a plate or a cutting board.  You will have a super melty, gloriously brown and crispy grilled cheese sandwich that has a buttery but not greasy crust.

These days, anything goes in a grilled cheese and you can use your favorite bread too. Whatever cheese you choose, I recommend at least one slice of melty cheese to hold everything together.  American cheese comes in both white and yellow and if I am making a grilled cheese with a fancy cheese, I opt for the white American cheese.  Enjoy your version of the classic but don’t stop there. Grilled cheese lends itself to all your favorite flavor variations.

Here are a few of my new combinations:

Jalapeno Jack, Tomato and Avocado on Whole Wheat Bread

Ham and Gruyere on Brioche or Martin’s Potato Bread

Pesto, Mozzarella and Prosciutto on Italian Bread with a Sesame Seed Crust

Brie and Fig Jam on Country Bread

Blue Cheese, Walnuts and Sliced Pear on Raisin Bread

Sharp Cheddar and Apple on Rye Bread

Monterey Jack, Spinach and Sliced Almonds on Whole Grain Bread

©2023 Elizabeth Karmel