Why Do Some Cheeses Melt Easily and Others Don't? | Grilled Cheese | What's Eating Dan?
Vložit
- čas přidán 5. 10. 2018
- In this episode, Dan explains why some cheeses melt effortlessly while others separate into a greasy mess. Armed with this scientific knowledge, you'll be able to make the best grilled cheese for your tastes.
Check out our grown-up grilled cheese recipe: cooks.io/2pCivhh
Geek out and buy some sodium citrate: amzn.to/2RpwinY
Buy Our Winning Cast Iron Pan: cooks.io/2o6og5F
Purchase our Science of Good Cooking Cookbook: amzn.to/2NPc1qc
Follow Dan on Facebook: / dansouzacooksillustrated
Follow Dan on Instagram: / testcook
Follow Dan on Twitter: / testcook
Check out our Is it Bad? series with Hannah Crowley: • Is It Bad? With Hannah...
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America's Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
If you like us, follow us:
cooksillustrate...
/ cooksillustrated
/ testkitchen
/ cooksillustrated
/ testkitchen
I ran a food truck in nyc and use mayo on the outside. You ain’t wrong about what you say, people seemed pretty happy with the result. It’s a different flavor, not better or worse. It does make it less greasy though which is what we liked about it. Great video as always.
Excellent! The science of cooking makes cooking so much more fun & less like "let's just get this done".
My granddaughter gets "grilled cheese" sandwichs served to her from the microwave. One day I was making lunch & started making real grilled cheese sandwiches & she started saying "no, no, not like that". I reassured her that Nani's grilled cheese would be so good that she would want another one for dinner. She settled her little 4 year old self down with a frown of defeat. But when I served up her beautifully browned, crunchy & gooey grilled cheese, her frown went straight. When she took a bite of a real grilled cheese sandwich her eyes popped wide open & she was in love with the real deal grilled cheese. It was a great day!
That made me smile, thanks for sharing!
Serving a microwaved sandwich to a child and then telling that child it's a grilled cheese? Call child protective services
Although a microwaved grilled cheese is a kitchen sin, it sounds like you just wanted to undermine your child. Sounds like a nightmare.
@@adamlanghans
That is not "undermining" her child. That is just being honest. GRILLED cheese, not nuked cheese sandwiches, ser.
@@b_uppy If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you, m'lord.
I like this series. I can really tell that Dan loves talking about food and cooking. I really like the passion he has and how well he conveys that passion.
I sometimes put grated cheese on the outside of the sandwich as well. This creates a grilled cheese with a frico crust. Mmmm!
rip pan
@@mitchellgass4141 *laughs in non-stick pan*
i have (a lot of!) sodium hydroxide for super easy stainless steel pan cleaning. which fwiw you can mix with common citric acid to make sodium citrate
@@5naxalotl I believe it because it's in the comments of a cooking video!
damn bro ur weird
*puts bread in water and eats it*
OK, here is the way I was taught.
Butter all 4 sides of 2 pieces of substantial
bread. (I like Sourdough.) Put the 2 "inside"
faces on the skillet,and toast until LIGHTLY
browned. Flip one over, put your cheese on,
and put the other piece of bread on it. Toasted
sides facing each other. Continue cooking, until
both outer sides are golden brown and delicious!
Yes, it has a lot of fat in it. Deal with it. Don't
eat it every day.
steve
This is easily one of the best videos Ive seen in a very long time. Dan does an excellent job, the production value is stellar (talented producers and crew), and it is beautifully written. I definitely learned something. Thanks for doing this series!
Thanks for watching John!
Outstanding! Cooking is applied chemistry and you nailed it! Explaining why, and not just how, makes a huge difference and makes cooking more interesting and less error prone.
"Even spells out nacho" LOL Love it. Now pardon me while I make a grilled cheese.
Just to ruin this: It doesn't. The parts of Molecules in chemistry are listed in alphabetic order, so it would spell "CHNaO", not "NaCHO".
@@0-Kirby-0 Alphabetical order is used after Carbon and Hydrogen, but since sodium citrate is an ionic compound, the cation (sodium) is listed first.
@@tonyshi3688 Well there's something I missed in my high school chemistry class.
Thank you!
I watched ATK for years. After that guy left it seemed to go downhill IMO. I love watching your videos cuz the science is there. There is no waste of time using the tired old ATK format. You pick one subject, you cover it very well, and you don't waste my time. Keep up the great work, please!
David Fox he’s now the magazine’s editor! He didn’t leave he got a promotion!
I love these segments, the intros are kind of all over the place - but if he continues he’ll get good at that too. But his love, his joy about food is lyrical. How his eyes light up, his spirit ascends when he explore what food does and how alive it is for us. He neither talk down or up, he speaks across. The most complicated chemical compositions becomes something concrete because as he always insist you can taste it on your tongue. With triumph, he usually ends his postings with something in his mouth - the end results of good cooking. Bravo!
“Go full geek” 🤓 😂
I love how Dan breaks things down. He does it in a way anyone can comprehend without coming across as talking down or making you feel stupid. I love these segments!
Always loved America’s Test Kitchen for finding out how to cook it right, so great to see this series with Dan as I totally pictured him as being the newest food science guy in the likes Bill Nye or Alton Brown of “Good Eats”! Good science!
I like to apply melted butter on one side of both pieces of bread and place them in a pan butter down. While that browns I butter the other side. I give them a flip lightly toasted and put the cheese ( what ever I have) on the toasted side. Toast the second side while the cheese starts to melt then assemble the sandwich. Turn it over as necessary as to control toasting, not allowing it to burn. I love melty cheese with crunchy, buttery toast!
Paul Smith indeed. And it should cook more evenly and slightly quicker.
I've taken to freezing my loaf of bread (single living lol) and heat it on a pan, flip, drop in a bit of butter, flip, drop in the other bit of butter, flip, lower heat, add cheese and watch the melt. Takes the stress out of wondering how fresh your bread is
Same, I always considered that the normal way of making grilled cheese. Now I'm wondering how most people make it.
I needed this. There is one thing my husband makes better than I do, and it is grilled cheese. No more! I am the champion! Also, I really like Muenster cheese slices for grilled cheese. Melts nicely and tastes amazing.
You had to take the one thing he had?
I’ve tried the mayo on the bread for crispiness but you’re 100% right about the flavor. I like to do 2 cheeses. A melty cheese and a sharper aged cheese. American & gruyere, fontina & grated Parmesan or provolone & cheddar. I also like to add a ‘jam’ such as fig, tomato or some caramelized onion. I’ve also added green herbs or tomato. It depends on my mood.
My favorite thing to do is fry up an egg, then use that egg in the middle of my grilled cheese. It's amazing.
Did you ever cook a grilled cheese sandwich using the iron in hotel room?
You are right about the low setting. I used the rayon setting.
That's awesome!
I usually use the wool setting.
An "Aha!" moment. Now I know why my freshly ironed shirts have grease stains on them every time I travel.
I know what I'm making the next time I stay in a hotel. 😉
I find rayon gives me a crispier crust!
Dan, I love your segments, keep 'em coming. 2 singles on white bread, WITH butter. Cannot be improve upon. Well, with a bowl of canned Tomato soup, goes without saying.
Thomas Park - I don't know where you're at, but it's mostly a US thing. Maybe Canada. So, if you're not there, I'd be surprised it's a thing where you're at. Now, I do recommend you try it at least once. But, if you do, don't settle on canned tomato soup. Treat yourself by finding a decent tomato soup.
Pepper jack and sharp cheddar. Potato bread.
I like chicken noodle soup with my grilled cheese.
First Last, ya mean peroghies???
For me, a few bread and butter chips are the only additive, I am a ketchup freak and garlic for that matter and that doesn't sound good. Seems like it would overpower the subtle taste.
Kraft singles are not synonymous with American cheese though. American cheese is real cheese, Kraft singles are a "processed cheese food".
Kraft singles taste pretty bad compared to actual cheese like a mild cheddar, I wouldn't even think of using it in a cheese toasty
American cheese is also a processed cheese food, just a better-quality one than Kraft singles
@@pestoriusj False, processed cheese food contains less cheese than actual cheese. Not all American cheese is the same, and you can even find others cheese that's labeled that way as well.
@@BrumBrumBryn kraft singles are horrible lol
The word food wasn’t added by the post, its in the name of the product. The government makes them add that so you know it’s only a cheese added food, but American cheese is the cheese that velveeta and singles are made with. It is a perfectly natural calcium rich cheese, with less salt than cheddars and jacks.
I love having some brie cheese, it melts as well as any cheese can and has lots of complex flavors.
I would like to see a video where you actually tell us how to use the sodium citrate.
Sometimes I’ll Sprinkle some grated cheddar on the bread and give it one more flip.
I know what I’m having for lunch now.
Adam Ragusea has one
One suggestion, when cooking the grilled cheese, after buttering both pieces, place them both on the heating surface like an open face sandwich, place one piece of cheese on each piece of bread, your preference. As the bread is browning and the cheese is melting, you can then put both pieces together. It cooks more evenly on both sides and cooks twice as fast.
Really enjoying this series. I love grilled (griddled) cheese sandwiches. One step I take is dry toasting the "inside" of the bread first, then butter the other side and finish as usual. The toasting gives it an extra bit of crunch.
I've graduated to a sharp American cheese - still has that great melt-ability and a little more bite than good old American - but I didn't rush it...took me 45 years to get there ;-) It's available sliced to order at most grocery store deli counters.
Sodium citrate also keeps the blood from transfusion bags from clotting, and its displacement of Calcium is the reason you need to administer Calcium after every 2 units transfused. I would have never thought it did the same to cheese!!
Wonder who copied who?
To help speed the melting and add some extra crunch, I like to cook one side of each slice of bread first. Then I sandwich the cheese between the hot, crispy sides of the bread, and proceed with the standard cooking process. It probably doesn't save *that* much time, but you get double-the-butter and double-the-crunch!
Interesting idea, I'll have to try it. Thanks!
I know skillets are the way it been done forevers but I have an alternative. Now hear me out . . . broiler. Yes the broiler in your oven. I make my grilled cheese with mayo because I like it that way, a nice old cheddar usually shredded, and add a sprinkle of garlic powder. Onto a baking sheet then under the broiler. DO NOT PREHEAT! The low and slow Dan mentioned happens as the broiler warms up the cheese melts nicely and you can watch the browning happen to get the perfect doneness. Flip and the second side will brown quickly. I love it because the outside gets nice and crunchy but the bread stays airy unlike how skillet done ones always end up squashed.
You can also get sodium citrate by mixing Citric Acid (in the canning aisle of your grocery store) or a citrus juice with baking soda together in a bit of water. If you need a teaspoon of sodium citrate use a teaspoon of citric acid and gradually add tiny amounts of baking soda until it stops bubbling
I really like typical American Cheese on white (or wheat) bread with butter because it reminds me of my childhood (and even college) days. These days I like a bit more... like a grilled cheese (usually cheddar) with sliced rotisserie chicken, jalapeno, and grilled onions on a sour dough bread. No mayo for me, just butter! Thanks for a great video!!
Okay, but like when dan comes out with a 12 month calendar of him eating a seasonal food of his choice I’m gonna buy a case and hang them all over my place!
Anthony Torres I’ll buy that
SHUT UP AND TẠKE MY MONEY
Let's just say I had already ordered sodium citrate before the end of the video
So I'm gonna go full geek and use that sodium citrate to make some bangin' mac and cheese!
I cook everything in vintage cookware, and appliances. As such, I tend to lean toward vintage recipes, or use modern recipes, and prepare them using vintage tools. Anyway, that brings me to Mayo on grilled cheese sandwiches. Many vintage cookbooks, pamphlets, etc. use butter on the outside, and mayo on the inside of a grilled cheese sandwich. I've also had friends, and relatives tell me that's how their moms' made grilled cheese back in the day.
i bought sodium citrate on amazon but i use it for mac and cheese, remember chef steps? they had videos on making your own melty cheese slices
I like my grilled cheese sandwiches on whole-wheat bread with a strong flavoured cheese. In fact, I prefer extra-old cheese. I must try calcium citrate to make the cheese stop breaking so much. Thank you for the information, Dan.
Just you found your channel today and I love it, keep the great content coming!
I've been making custom 'merican cheese for a couple of years now with gelatin, evaporated milk, and 2 or 3 different cheeses. My favorite is 50% 2 yr sharp cheddar, 25% blue, and 25% brie, on homemade whole wheat with butter toasted inside and out.
So I'm late, I just found your channel through Andrew Rea aka Babish. I just wanted to say that as a Polish person, my bread of choice for most things is a good seeded rye, and it hasn't failed me in a grilled cheese yet!
Really enjoyed this video....humor, education, and cooking tips....wow
I tend to use the mayo cooking method. I used butter for 30+ years but I like the taste of the browned mayo (Hellmans). It has to do with the vinegar I think.
Thanks for the video and info.
Here's mine: butter both sides of two slices of crispy french bread, brown one side of each, flip one slice in pan and place sharp cheddar on browned side of the flipped slice. Then place other slice browned side down onto the cheese. Brown the bottom of the sandwich and then flip and brown the other side. By the time both sides are brown the sharp cheddar will have melted. Having an extra layer of crispy bread separating the cheese and the bread is worth the extra effort.
I just tried grilled cheese for the first time in my life and I made it the way you did and holy wow... I was missing out on something good.
I've always found that if you include one or two processed American cheese slices on a grilled cheese, you can add a small amount of a cheese that doesn't melt well, and the cheeses mix together as they heat up, giving you a decent melty texture without unpleasant oils leaking from the sandwich. I make a point of sandwiching sharp cheddar, manchego, or emmentaler (/Jarlsburg) cheese between two slices of processed cheese within the sandwich. This ensures that the two types of cheese mix well as they melt.
Thanks Dan great episode. I'm a American cheese grill cheeser.
BigLove101 a
Dan, would Sodium Citrate be the answer to cheese dip that seizes up when it cools down. There is a restaurant in Little Rock and North Little Rock by the name of Mexico Chiquito. It is a local restaurant that is famous for their cheese dip. The rest of their food and service has gone downhill over the years, but they are still in business because of their dip.
Anyway, recipes have been passed around that are very similar, but they all get stiff after cooling. You guys should send a taster down to try it and try to re-create it.
You've definitely gotten better with age, Dan. I love the science about food!
I am from southern Brazil and my childhood grilled cheese is a "torrada" - which literally means a "burnt". Typically made with portuguese bread, mozzarella and cooked ham. You're not supposed to go full charcoal, of course, but the slight charring of the bread does give it a more pungent taste overall, while the ham keeps the inside moist. It would be interesting to see how different cultures approach "cheese+bread" and create variations.
Thank you for addressing this mindless "mayonnaise instead of butter on grilled cheese" fixation.
@@number_three Brown, yes. But the crispy flakiness is bound to the bread, instead of its own structure. I prefer it to butter, personally.
Have you tried the Japanese mayo called Kewpie? Add a thin layer of red miso paste on the inside and you have the best savoury grilled cheese sandwich.
@@GeonQuuin Very interesting suggestion; I will give it a go, most definitely. Two questions. Is the rest of the sandwich made the standard way, and are there any specific cheeses you would recommend (a combination of any two as Dan suggested in the video)?
Oh, ick. I didn't know people did that. But the minute he said it, my tongue was hanging out in a barfing motion. No, no, no... And if I wanted egg on my bread, I'd make french toast instead. (That's good, too, but I'd still wouldn't use mayo on that, either.)
TrueHero123
Yes, 1000 times yes!
I just ate a whole digiorno cheese pizza, i am stuffed, but seeing that melty gooey cheese made my mouth water so much
Love this channel. I like to melt the butter in the microwave and brush the butter on the bread. You do have to watch the heat.
Thanks, Dan. I've tried margarine, mayo, and butter for grilled cheese, and butter is the best, and at a lower temp to allow the cheese to melt. Because I'm on a low sodium diet, I quit eating and using American cheese, which is very high in sodium, in my grilled cheese sandwiches. As Gruyere wasn't easily available, I switched to using a slice each of Gouda and Havarti, and ended up with the best grilled cheese ever. The combination was so umami, and the cheeses were still stretchable halfway through eating.
Great now I have to a have a grilled cheese for breakfast
American Cheese all the way. Never mayo (yuk). Occasionally a little mustard on the inside if I'm feeling zingy. Cooked in an iron skillet of course. Really look forward to your videos.
Never mayo, but just about any melty cheese handy! Getting partial to the zing of pepperjack.
Amazing video. So informative and yet it made me hungry. Well done!
There is nothing better than the original grilled cheese of our childhood, now is there? Butter, white squishy bread and American cheese (the yellow kind). Thanks, Dan! 💕💕💕
ever since ive found this channel ive found out alot about my mistakes ive made while cooking and improved on them
Awesome video as usual Dan. Love the mix of medium length, high production quality, passion, science etc. This is a great series, keep it up.
I love it when it turns into a science lesson
Great explanations of how cheese melts. With that said, the best Adult melted cheese sandwich that I have had yet is one I make with a cheddar cheese I found in Wisconsin. It has basil and dried tomato in it. And I use rye bread. Serve with a really good cream tomato soup and it's heaven.
If you don't dip it in your tomato soup, you're missing out.
Also, homemade tomato soup is major easy if you start with a can of pureed tomatoes. Don't start with can of Campbell's (mmm mmm SALT).
I agree with you 100%
I keep saying I'm going to try this, but always end up being lazy. How do you make your tomato soup, please?
BTW, you're absolutely right about dipping. It's a must.
grilled cheese is literally the ONLY time i will touch the disgusting mess that is tomato soup. that combination just works.
Except starting with "canned" sorta taints it as being "Homemade"
@@Timinator62 depends on how far you want to take "homemade". i mean, OP spoke of starting with a can of pureed tomato to make a "homemade" soup. i mean, i suppose you can also object to "store bought" tomato and ONLY count soup with "grown in your yard" tomato as being "homemade" soup. do we stop there? i mean, what about fertilizer? does OP also need a worm farm to properly fertilize? does "store bought" seed count when growing said "home grown" tomatoes? or is it only heirloom handed down from the olden days?
I like to spread a small amount of cream cheese around the edge of the bread and then some smoked Gouda in the center of the bread with just a little Havarti. The cream cheese puffs as it warms while the Gouda and Havarti create a savory center.
Dan, as always, thank you for being such a food nerd for me. I really appreciate it. Now to order some sodium stuff on the internets and make me a cheese sauce. Unless you can come over this weekend and make me one instead?!
🙋🏼Hi Dan, I am loving these videos you make. I love finding out all about my food. This one about garlic, chocolate chip cookies🍪, and the one about cheese🧀 (grill cheese) are two of my favorites. I would love for you to make a video about different herbs 🌿 and spices, and discuss the difference between fresh verses dried, which is best for what dishes and why? What's the best way to store them and for how long.
I'd also love to see a really great meatloaf recipe. Meatloaf is a wonderful comfort food but I've had a lot of bad ones that are dense/tough, full of grease and/or have no flavor at all. So I would love to see your take on a great full flavored, tender meatloaf🍴.
Thanks again for the wonderful videos, keep making them and I'll keep watching and telling my friends. Dee👩🏼🍳
Your tangent about butter/mayo brings up a valid point... But I'm honestly a mayo guy for grilled cheese. I'm also that weirdo that will put a little homemade bbq sauce in my grilled cheese, so that probably contributes to me putting the crisp of the mayo over the flavour of the butter.
I just love grilled cheese... You could probably manage to make a different version every day for a whole year before you even had to start getting weird with it. So many cheeses and breads to choose from...
No love for munster? It's such a great melting cheese!
And the pull is glorious!
If you want to fancy up the bread while maintaining maintain this classic style and texture of grilled cheese sandwich, I heartily recommend a Japanese shokupan bread, which fancypants grilled cheese makers like myself generally regard as the king of soft white sandwich bread. It's perfect for this and other toast bread uses. As for the rest of the video, I think this does a great job overviewing the cheese options for this sandwich. One thing I'd add is that if you want some flavor of a stronger harder longer-aged cheese you can add some very finely grated cheese without noticably affecting the texture but noticeably affecting the flavor. You can get away with a little, without having to resort to the full-blown custom blend techniques shown here. However, for this style of grilled cheese the strong flavor of a hard Parmeggiano-Reggiano or Pecorino tastes out of place. I enjoy a milder cheese that delivers a buttery cheesy stretchy sandwich. I want the flavor of the toasted bread and butter to be as significant as the flavor of the cheese. Strong cheeses can be dominant, which gives the sandwich a different character. I enjoy the simple "I could eat a pile of these" flavor. I also made a few "grilled cheeses" (quesadillas?) with paratha bread this past month after watching Serious Eat's video on how to make them. They're a buttery flaky wheat flatbread that makes a satisfying alternative to buttered toast when filled with melted cheese. But of course, it's not _the_ grilled cheese, and I appreciate how this video offers flavor options while adhering to an ideal texture.
I'm a butter guy, but I did read a taste test where a lot of people enjoyed toasting their blend with a mix of butter and mayonnaise. I haven't tried it.
Once bought a cheese called "FMV cheese" (for maxium value) took it camping, put it on a VERY hot skillet with eggs. The cheese wasn't touched and tasted exactly like plastic. Threw a few shreds into the fire, after an hour it was only blackened. We didn't touch it and then threw it away.
Butter inside and outside of the bread, generous slice of Tillamook medium cheddar, grilled in a cast iron skillet...and cream of Tomato soup... wow! Powerful memories... now I'm gluten intolerant and life has lost its meaning
Dan is always interesting with his observations, explanations, and opinions. But grilled cheese is also great because it’s so easy; I’m not going to shred cheese and add chemicals to remake the wheel.
I know!! I'm so glad he gave other options, I thought he was only going to talk about that
Instead of spreading cold butter on the bread just put it in the pan and melt it. It will brown you bread just the same.
2nd side gets browned in older, lesser butter, though. This is optimum for an equal distribution and an even browning.
For grilled cheese, burger buns, and english muffins, I make my own whipped butter with extra salt and a ton of water whipped in - I'm talking 67% of the volume of the butter. In a stand mixer, add 2 sticks room temperature salted butter, an extra 1/4 tsp salt if desired, and very gradually, add 2/3 cup water. Start on low with 2 or 3 tsp water and gradually increase the speed until it's whipped in. Too much water at once will just splash out without incorporating, make a mess, and mess up the ratio, so just do a little at a time, starting over at low speed with each addition.
All of that extra water in the butter steams and heats the bread like you wouldn't believe, but the bread browns just the same once the water is cooked out. It makes the bread incredibly hot and soft. When using on a refrigerated burger bun, by the time it's browned on the bottom, it will be hot and moist and fresh all the way through. You can even start with frozen sliced bread for a grilled cheese - just pry a couple slices off of a frozen loaf, put your refrigerated cheese in the middle, grill, and it comes out perfect. The refrigerated whipped butter is awkward to work with at first because it won't stick to the bread cold, and is almost brittle in texture. I use a spoon to shave off a nice clump, place it in the middle of the griddle, and immediately place the bun or sandwich on top and swirl it around to coat evenly. Try it, you'll love it!
I like to add a thin layer of mayonnaise or mustard to the inside of the sandwich before grilling it, depending on whatever else I add. Bacon and tomato - mayonnaise. Ham and Swiss or cheddar -mustard.
Everyone complaining about the loud music being distracted, but the only thing I can concentrate on is how daddy Dan is.
I personally use swiss cheese for my grilled cheese. That and a bowl of tomato-basil soup go great together.
A good aged swiss is hard to beat. I have a grilled swiss once in a while too. The flavor of an aged Swiss cheese is not as popular nowadays as it has been very hard to find. You can buy a young swiss with almost no real flavor but the good stuff is worth searching for and paying the money it takes to get it. Aging the cheese costs money but you get a sharper flavor per dollar. Living in Wisconsin does have it's advantages, especially when it comes to getting your hands on good cheese. Try to find a aged swiss older than 2 years and you will not be sorry. You can always but that readily available packaged stuff from Kraft that is called "Aged" hanging in the grocery, but I am assuming that means any time after a week :) since the sharpness is pretty weak, but it is better than the young swiss out there readily available.
I melt some butter in the pan, slice or grate some cheddar, and make a very simple grilled cheese. Melting the butter in the pan gets you a much more even distribution of butter on the outside of the sandwich. While cheddar separates into an oily mess when you melt it, when it's between two slices of bread, that doesn't seem to be much of a problem, and the sandwich turns out great.
Dan, Of the ones you mentioned YELLOW AMERICAN tied with COLBY JACK.
My ALL-TIME FAVORITE is MUENSTER on LIGHT PUMPERNICKEL.
I like to use Ghee when cooking. Can be kept at room temp, has higher smoke point and more intense butter flavor.
Try adding a thin sliced tomato with a sprinkling of Italian seasoning to take it over the top! Use whatever cheese that trips your trigger!
I've been using olive oil instead of butter to brown my bread. Maybe not quite as good as butter, but I like it. I think I started using olive oil because we never had real butter in the house and margarine does not work for grilled cheese because it has too much water in it.
Butter the bread and put it unbuttered-side down in the skillet until the butter melts and soaks into the bread. Then flip over one slice, arrange the cheese on it, and top it with the other. You can use medium heat and the cheese will still melt beautifully. In addition, there's something about the texture of the bread when done this way.
I tried mayo instead of butter once. Everyone said, "Woo-woo, you'll never go back to butter. You'll love it." In all my 70 years, it's the only sandwich that I've ever thrown away and damn, it was an otherwise perfectly good grilled cheese.
I started using olive oil instead of butter on the bread. Turns out pretty well and is easy to apply. Is there a difference in Maillard reaction between oil and butter?
So glad you addressed the mayonnaise grilled cheese problem.
Love love love this series, thanks Dan & team! May I suggest you try to improve your diction a little bit? I understand the format requires you to speak fast, but at times *fast* turns into *barely articulated*, which is where non-native English-speakers such as myself tend to struggle somewhat. Hope you appreciate the feedback, please keep it up!
Good, ol', yellow American cheese. Maybe a slice of Colby-Jack slipped in the middle if there's some handy.
As per usual, learned a good deal & enjoyed Dan’s wit. Also, over my shame of preferring American cheese & white bread for grilled cheese sandwiches.
I do either co-jack or American cheese on wheat with butter. It depends on what is on hand.
flexible "matrix" i see what you did there Dan, getting a bit "punny" these days! and i think ATK should market the Sodium citrate aka NA3 C6 H5 O7 T-shirt - and my hack to this recipe, on the buttered bread sprinkle a generous layer of that "parm" in the green can - its so desiccated that it browns quickly and adds a nice frico crunch to your grilled cheese
I would absolutely buy that shirt.
Me too!
Thick slices of Wegmans olive oil-rosemary bread, Cabot pepperjack cheese, olive oil in the pan instead of butter on the bread. Low and slow until bread is brown and crisp and cheese is melted.
Tom J a fellow Wegmans shopper! I love it!
I live in the home of Wegmans...Rochester, NY.
OMGOSH! Sounds wonderful!
I actually usually use a mix of American and aged white cheddar. This goes very well with tomato soup.
Sodium citrate is a total game changer. And I agree about the mayonnaise. It gives the outside of the sandwich a similar taste and smell to a well-browned omelette, which is not something I enjoy. Similarly, not a huge fan of French toast.
Rather than either butter or mayo, I like to brush on a really good evoo, add some fresh ground pepper and a pinch of finishing salt.
My parents used to use cheddar. I'm ok with still using just cheddar. That's my favorite.
Thanks Dan it all depends on my mood I've done the American with tomato soup I've also done Swiss and Ham I know this is going to sound weird but I've also done pepperoni and mozzarella or provolone
I enjoy the videos with Dan in it too. Keep 'em coming!!
Tillamook sharp cheddar on sourdough is how I eat grilled cheese. If I'm feeling really fancy, I will add some Cotswold cheese. I cook it slow, and put a lid over the pan to keep in the heat and melt the cheese.
Light rye, shredded fontina inside shredded Parmesan outside, butter And FRY THE CRUST also!
1) Make sure it's a white bread. Whole wheat imparts too much flavor on white cheeses
2) light rye fries as chewy, if you want to go away from fluffy
3) fontina is a flavorful melting cheese. don't use too much it's expensive
4) shredded Parmesano reggiano sprinkled on pan place buttered bread on top when making sandwiches. It fries nicely, adds more crunch and tastes like cheese outside the bread where your tongue hits first.
5) butter the crust too and put higher heat near the and and push it against edge of pan or hold it on edge. No room for unfried bread in perfection
I love this guy. He's a blasphemer, and sometimes wrong (or maybe I am ;), but he states his reasons. And his views are somewhat different. Gotta love that.
He has a good personality and gets to the point. Unlike the fatties, he doesn't kill you with himself and say "HELLOOOO!!!!", every time he tastes something.
Here in Finland I use "Pogen Oivallus" myself as a bread, cheese is semi-soft cheese and strong Cheddar. This is because the surface becomes really crispy
I prefer coconut oil over butter. Looks and tastes great.
I prefer Mayo on my grilled cheese! And , for the record, not all American cheeses melt evenly! I use one slice "Borden's Melt" and one slice "Baby Swiss"! A little salt and pepper, or garlic pepper seasoning, on the "mayo'd" side of the bread! Excellent meal with Cream of Mushroom soup!