I’m having a discussion with the Dragonlady about grilled cheese sandwiches (because that’s what I’m making for dinner tonight). It’s a hot topic, and it could get messy.
What, for you, is a great grilled cheese sandwich?
White or whole wheat, or other?
Processed cheese slices, swiss, cheddar, other?
Sliced or shredded?
Open-faced or closed?
Spreads?
Butter or margarine or mayo or what?
Grilled or fried?
Etc.
Is anything taboo, or can anything happen?
Loves, dislikes, favourites?
For me, it’s a standard white sandwich bread, buttered on both sides, fried in a pan, with US cheese. Sometimes I’ll put some fried strips of bacon in if I have them handy. I never used to dip them in ketchup, but have started doing that as well.
One I heard of is a brioche bread, Marscapone cheese with a touch of vanilla whipped into it and strawberries. Technically a grilled cheese sandwich. I’d really like to try it sometime, and probably should have this summer. Dammit.
Mine is home made white bread, buttered only on the outside. That way the cheese melts into the bread better. I also like to fry them rather than grill them. The direct heat makes a nice flavour with the melted butter. I use a non-stick fry pan with no oil, just the melted butter.
Cheese is just whatever is in the fridge. In my case it is usually Edam - which melts rather nicely, but isn’t plastic.
Sometimes I like to put crushed pineapple in it, but then it’s a cheese & pineapple toasted sandwich, not a cheese sandwich.
And yes, I also like Hawaiian pizzas.
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White bread, American cheese, butter on the outside of the bread.
I used to pan-fry them, but relatively recently I discovered that I can make them in my air fryer and they come out amazing without any fiddling beyond “take them out and flip them once about 3 minutes til the end”
Edit: In fact, this is the basic instruction I use for it, minus the “adding pear slices to a grilled cheese” part: Best Ever Air Fryer Grilled Cheese - Recipes From A Pantry
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Well, there’s this: Chef 2014 - Grilled Cheese Scene with Jon Favreau - YouTube
We were inspired by an episode of Favreau’s more recent Chef documentaries series and made grilled cheese by using thick slices of bread (1/2"?) from a home-made loaf and pretty much All the Cheese we could find in our fridge. So a mix of Cheddar, mozzarella, and maybe some pepper jack or whatever we had. I believe butter was involved.
It was an extremely decadent and ridiculous sandwich for ‘normal’ consumption, but tasty. For normal everyday with soup and such it’s white or Italian bread with American cheese.
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Sourdough, buttered on the outside. Cheddar or gouda. Sometimes I like to put bacon and/or avocado in it.
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Everything from what my Dad called White Trash grilled cheese which is American pre sliced cheese put on white bread out of the toaster to homemade bread with fancy cheese on it.
Carb, cheese, carb, is the only requirement… that being said I have also had a Keto grilled cheese with chaffles and cheese.
But the basic is White or Wheat bread buttered on the outside with Velveeta cheese lyke substance. Fried in a nonstick pan. With or without tomato soup.
Made myself some scrumptiously crunchable delicious cheese, tomato and onion toasties in a pan the other day.
Gas hobs shines with this, you can turn the gas really low, and let the sammich toast nice and slowly in the pan for a long time…
Yum. Think a repeat performance definitely is needed.
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The perfect grilled cheese sandwich isn’t grilled; it is fried.
Pan goes onto hob to heat through, while extra mature Cheddar and red Leicester (“Lester”) is cut into strips about ⅛ of an inch. Two slices of hubby’s homemade milk bread are buttered on one side, the first of which is placed butter side down on the pan. The cheese is then added in alternating rows, and then doubled up with the alternate colour on the second pass; with a small amount of Polish mustard spread between them. The second slice of bread is placed butter side up. Each side is fried until the bread is toasty and the cheese is gooey but not lava. Served with Polish spicy ketchup for dipping.
…we buy most of our condiments from the Polish shop now. They have the best sweets!
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Baaaaah, you haven’t tried toasties made over a proper ironwood fire (hot coals only) yet…
But that is the way I also make toasties, they go in a pan over low heat, and the longer they stay there, the better for the insides…
I’ve found that too high a heat setting tend to have the toast burn, and the insides still is raw… it takes experience and lots of experimentation to find the perfect combination of heat, jummyness, ingredients and other stuff…
YUMMY!!1!!!11!!!
toasties = grilled cheese sandwiches
braaibroodjies in Afrikaans 
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Okay, I need to make another loaf of bread today, so I’ll probably be having a toastie for lunch. More details as they become available. Maybe pics.
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No pics yet?
HAH! I can actually do something about that today. Hang onto your butts.
I’m late to the party, but I maintain there are 3 ingredient requirements only, with no additional qualifiers:
- Bread (of choice), outside buttered
- Sliced cheese (of choice)
- Hot pan/griddle
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I’ve found that a pan on low heat works for me.
Put the toasty on, leave it for 2 to 4 minutes or so until the one side is golden, then flip it and repeat for the other side.
Mmmmmm, delish!
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Agreed. Having the pan on low heat allows the cheese to properly melt (each slice of bread is about half an inch thick so it takes a while 
)
Edit: I just realised how small half an inch is - the slices are more like 3/4 of an inch.
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