Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine

Table of Contents

The Trifecta Twisted Classics

07 09 11 21 27 31 33 35

The ‘Za Cinco de Queso The Texan The BLTC The Godfather The Americano The Rumdog The Swisster

Simple Sammies

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GRILLED CHEESE MAGAZINE

All photos, articles, and creative names are property of Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine LLC. All photos taken by Brandt Hausch. Layout designed by Brandt Hausch. Any attempt to steal from Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine LLC will result in the deliverance of severe pain, and possibly even the occurrence of death.

We hope you enjoy our sandwiches and stories, The Meltdown Grilled Cheese Team

There’s a new sandwich in town, and its name is The ‘Za. This delectable creation takes all of the best pizza flavors—the cheesy goodness, the delicious sauce, and the crispy crust—and puts them between two slices of bread for an easy-to-eat meal that will have you coming back for more.

We’ve got all sorts of recipes for grilled cheese sandwiches to entertain your taste buds. Try our jalapeño popper grilled cheese and steak grilled cheese for two more tasty choices.

A grilled cheese is a grilled cheese, right? I mean, it’s the first meal that most of us learn how to cook at home by ourselves. It’s the perfect midnight snack or soup-dipper. It’s great for kids, but is never turned down by an adult. It’s salty, gooey, crisp, buttery, and comforting in all the right ways.

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The ‘Za

Ingredients

2 pieces 4 slices 1 cup 4 oz 1 oz 2 tsp. 1/2 tsp. 1 pinch 1 tbsp.

Italian Roundloaf

Fresh Mozzarella Pizza Sauce Cup Pepperoni Parmesan Cheese

Italian Seasoning Salt Pepper Garlic Butter

Directions

Take one slice of Italian Bread and put it into a hot skillet along with some butter. Add a slice of mozzarella cheese, followed by pepperoni and another slice of cheese. Place another piece of Artesano Bread on top, then cook and flip.

Once the cheese looks melty, spread the garlic butter on and cook on both sides for an additional 30 seconds. Remove and enjoy!

Since the pepperoni doesn’t actually cook, you’ll want to place it onto a microwave-safe plate lined with a paper towel and cook it for about 20-25 seconds. This will also help release a lot of the grease. Dab it off and it’s ready to go.

Change out the cheese: Mozzarella is classic for pizza, but you can easily use other cheeses such as white cheddar, monterey Jack, and gruyere.

Pizza’s Past

Pizza has a long history. Flatbreads with toppings were consumed by the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. (The latter ate a version with herbs and oil, similar to today’s focaccia.)

But the modern birthplace of pizza is southwestern Italy’s Campania region, home to the city of Naples. These Neapolitans required inexpensive food that could be consumed quickly. Pizza—flatbreads with various toppings, eaten for any meal met this need.

Photo of an uncut The ‘Za fresh out of the pan. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltodwn Grilled Cheese Magazine Inc.

cincO quesO de

Cinco de Queso

Ingredients

2 pieces 3 slices 1/2 cup 1 cup 1 oz 2 tsp. 1 pinch 1 pinch 1 tbsp.

Texas Toast Pepper Jack Cheese Queso Blanco Chorizo Jalapeños Hot Sauce

Salt Pepper Butter

Directions

In a large skillet or grill pan, cook the sliced chorizo over medium high heat, flipping once, until lightly browned, about 3-4 minutes. Place the chorizo on paper towels to drain the grease. Wipe the grease out of the pan.

Butter the bread slices on 1 side. Spread the unbuttered sides with chipotle mayo. Layer cheese, chorizo, sliced jalapeños and more cheese on top

of the chipotle mayo sides of bread. Close the sandwiches with the remaining bread slices, turning the buttered side up. Place the sandwiches back in the skillet or on the grill pan and cook over moderate heat, turning once, until the bread is golden brown and the cheese is melted. Cut the sandwiches in half and serve.

Ingredient In

You can find chipotle peppers in adobo sauce in the Mexican section of most grocery stores. You can also find chorizo sausage at most grocery stores. This is a tip that you should follow in order to make and have a better tasting grilled cheese. We highly recommend this and will keep saying it to fill this sidebar here. You can find chipotle peppers in adobo sauce in the Mexican section of most grocery stores.

Cinco de Queso fresh out of the pan. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltodwn Grilled Cheese Magazine Inc.

t e x a n The

The Texan

Directions

Combine the butter, garlic and Italian seasoning in a small bowl and blend well.

Spread a thin layer of garlic butter on 1 side of 4 slices of bread. Place the bread butter side down on a cutting board. Top each slice with 2 slices of American cheese, 2 slices of tomato, 2 slices of ham, 2 slices of bacon, 2 more slices of cheese and another slice of bread. Spread the tops of the

sandwiches with the remaining garlic butter.

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. Place the 4 sandwiches in the skillet and cook covered, for 2 to 3 minutes or until the bread browns. Turn over and cook for another 2 minutes or until the bread browns and the cheese has melted. Slice in half and serve immediately.

The Perfect Bacon

Bring the bacon to room temperature. Lay the strips in a cold skillet, raise the heat to medium and cook, turning, until desired crispness, 5 to 10 minutes. Drain on paper towels. For large batches, lay the strips on a foil-lined baking sheet in a cold oven; set to 400 degrees F and bake 15 to 20 minutes. This is some mumbo jumbo to fill up the rest of this sidebar, or at least most of it. Hopefully this method of cooking yields perfect bacon results!

The Texan right off the heat. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltodwn Grilled Cheese Magazine Inc.

Grilled Goodness

A grilled cheese is a grilled cheese, right? I mean, it’s the first meal that most of us learn how to cook at home by ourselves. It’s the perfect midnight snack or soup-dipper. It’s great for kids, but is never turned down by an adult. It’s salty, gooey, crisp, buttery, and comforting in all the right ways.

A Better Grilled Cheese

You know before you even bite into a grilled cheese whether it’s going to be transcendent or not. In a really good one, the cheese slowly oozes from the edges. The bread’s face is an even golden brown that’s suffused with butter. Pick it up and you can feel the butter in the bread (but it doesn’t leave your fingers greasy—at least, not too greasy), while the crust is crisp yet flexes ever so slightly, revealing a layer of tender crumb underneath. Mmm, yum! And that’s all before you shove that glorious cocktail of textures and fat into your mouth. We’ve learned a thing or two over the years. Here are our best tips and our favorite recipes to twist your expecta-

tions and change your making methods of grilled cheese for the rest of your life.

Grilled Cheese, Defined Before we get to the specifics, we need to set up a few parameters relevant to the definition. Exactly what is and what isn’t a grilled cheese, anyway? Obviously, cheese and bread must be involved, as well as some form of heat. But does an open-faced Reuben count? Or

Better Bread

Will mediocre bread be improved when heated and layered with cheese? Yes, definitely. But using better bread will take your grilled cheese to a whole new level. Try using homemade bread or a loaf from your favorite bakery. It can be fun to experiment with whole wheat and whole grain varieties, as well as rye, sourdough, pumpernickel, or even a sweeter option like cinnamon swirl. You can also go further outside the breadbox, and use English muffins,

The ‘Za accompanied by marinara sauce and fresh basil for dipping. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese LLC.

how about a Mexican pambazo, dipped in sauce and griddled, with a million other ingredients?

We’ve thought long and hard about this, and there are a few basic rules that we think everyone can agree upon.

A grilled cheese must... be a closed sandwich, griddled on both sides, and have cheese as the primary ingredient. Other ingredients can complement the cheese, but none may overwhelm it.

The sandwich must be made with sliced bread. Thus, a sandwich made with a whole, crust-on loaf, like a panino or a Cubano, does not qualify.

It also must be served hot all the way through, with the cheese thoroughly melted.

The final component is that it must be cooked on a flat, greased surface until golden brown. In extreme circumstances, it may be cooked on an outdoor grill over an open fire. A grilled cheese may never be baked or deep-fried. This is very important. Agreed? Let’s lock some details down.

The Bread

Aside from having to be sliced, the only other rule here is that your bread can’t be too perforated with air bubbles (or your cheese will drip out) or sliced too thick (lest your cheese not melt). White bread and American cheese are what many of

waffles, croissants, focaccia, or pull-apart rolls. Avoid thick slices, which will make it harder for the cheese to melt, and skip loaves with a lot of holes. Also, note that day old or about to go stale bread is perfect for grilled cheese, as the fat and heat will bring it back to life.

Cross section of The ‘Za. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine LLC.

Detail photo of The ‘Za fresh out of the pan. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese LLC.

us grew up on, but if you want to go fancier, feel free to use a nice hand-sliced Italian ciabatta, a good sourdough, or a French boule. Grilled cheese is also a great way to use up day-old bread, since the grilling process will resuscitate it a bit.

The Cheese

A grilled cheese doesn’t work with just any old cheese. You’ve got to have a cheese with just the right melting characteristics. Dry, crumbly, fresh cheeses, like goat cheese, won’t melt properly. Ditto for overly aged cheeses, like a Parmesan or hard pecorino. Some of our favorites include the classic

American and young cheddar, Swiss-style cheeses like Gruyère (or its French cousin Comté), and young Italian and French cheeses like Taleggio or Brie. As long as it melts, it’s got a place in our sandwiches.

If you do like the flavor of a non-melter, it’s acceptable to treat it like another topping— that is, pair it with a cheese that does melt. A mozzarella and feta combo makes a fine sandwich, as does Fontina with Parmesan, for instance.

The Method

The best method we’ve seen for making a perfect grilled cheese comes from Adam Kuban. His

secret? Griddle the bread on both sides. Cook two slices of bread in butter, flip them over so that the browned sides are facing up, add your cheese, and close your sandwich so that the cheese is sandwiched between the browned surfaces. Not only will this get you better-tasting bread that’s infused with more butter, it’ll also give your cheese a head start on getting extra melty.

Use butter, and salt your skillet before adding the bread. I like to melt the butter, then sprinkle the skillet or griddle lightly with sea salt to season the outside of the sandwich.

Cinco de Queso before it is cut by the blade beside it. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine LLC.

Cinco de Queso

If you want to go really wild, try this crazy cultural sandwich. You can leave out the butter altogether and instead spread a layer of mayonnaise on every surface of your sandwich before cooking. It’ll melt and brown, adding a touch of tangy-sweet flavor.

Low and slow is the way to go. Cook your sandwiches at medium-low heat. Try to speed up the process and you’ll end up with a sandwich that’s hot on the outside, but still cool and unmelted in the middle. It’ll also be harder to get that perfect golden brown look.

Keep things moving. I like to swirl my sandwiches around the skillet or griddle with a light pressure the entire time they’re cooking, to make sure that they get a perfectly even, deepbrown color.

Instant Upgrades: StraightFrom-the-Package Add-Ins

The simplest grilled cheese upgrade? The next step up is to actually—wait for it—put another ingredient in between the slices. It’s not that hard. Here are just a few ideas: Fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs: To each their own, but we prefer fresh, juicy vegetables with a distinctive sweet or tart flavor. Cucumber in

a grilled cheese? No thanks. Slices of fresh tomato, figs, tart apples like Granny Smiths, pears (even underripe ones!), sweet grapes like Concords or their tangier Muscat cousins, or even kiwi. Try sliced hot peppers (like serrano or jalapeño, or, if you really want to torture your diners, habanero); avocado (unless you, like me, hate the whole warm-avocado thing); fresh basil leaves; chopped tarragon; or chopped rosemary.

LOW SLOW the way tO GO

Cross section of the Cinco de Queso. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine LLC.

The Texan

Oh, also cranberries, sliced strawberries, or dried fruits like dried cranberries, raisins, currants, or prunes (to get extra fancy, soak ‘em in sweetened brandy beforehand).

Pickles and other cured things: Pickles are the perfect complement to grilled cheese. The acidity and saltiness of a good pickle cut right through the rich cheese like the cornichons on a fancy-pants charcuterie platter. Try dill or bread-and-butter chips; pickle relish; British-style Branston pickle or piccalilli; sliced pickled jalapeños; olives (or, better yet, muffuletta-style olive salad); chopped French cornichons; capers; or sliced caper berries.

Deli meats: They’re easy to add, salty, meaty...basically just what you want in a grilled cheese.

Jams, chutneys, and other condiments: Anything that would work well on your cheese plate will work well in a grilled cheese. I particularly like sweet, jammy things like guava paste, cranberry relish, or fig jam.

Also good: red pepper jelly, olive tapenade, honeycomb (try it out with blue cheese!), ketchup (if you really must), grainy mustard, apricot preserves, strawberry or raspberry preserves, orange marma-

lade, sliced preserved lemons, sriracha (not for me, thanks), Buffalo wing sauce, apple cider jam, or a hot pepper relish. Other things: Now we start to enter wacky territory. Pretzels are great with cheese sauce, so why not crunched-up pretzels or, better yet, potato chips? Or, for a meta grilled cheese, how about a grilled cheese with crunched-up Cheez-Its? Maybe even Doritos, Fritos, or Goldfish

PIckles are the perfect complement grilled cheese

Cross section detail of The Texan. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine LLC.

would do the trick to your sandwich. Melted milk chocolate works, as does Nutella.

A grilled cheese doesn’t work with just any old cheese. You’ve got to have a cheese with just the right melting characteristics. Dry, crumbly, fresh cheeses, like goat cheese, won’t melt properly. Ditto for overly aged cheeses, like a Parmesan or hard pecorino. Some of our favorites include the classic American and young cheddar, Swiss-style cheeses like Gruyère, and young Italian and French cheeses like Taleggio or Brie. As long as it melts, it’s got a place in our sandwiches.

If you do like the flavor of a non-melter, it’s acceptable to treat it like another topping— that is, pair it with a cheese that does melt. A mozzarella and feta combo makes a fine sandwich, as does Fontina with Parmesan, for instance.

Use butter, and salt your skillet before adding the bread. I like to melt the butter, then sprinkle the skillet or griddle lightly with salt to season the outside of the sandwich. (You can skip the extra salt if you use salted butter.)

If you want to go really wild, leave out the butter altogether and instead spread a layer of

mayonnaise on every surface of your sandwich before cooking. It’ll melt and brown, adding a touch of tangy-sweet flavor. it’s acceptable to treat it like another topping—that is, pair it with a cheese that does melt.

The Texan fresh out of the pan. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine LLC.

Of all the quick but delicious meals I’ve leaned heavily on the past 18 months, grilled cheese is near the top of the list. I almost always have the basic ingredients around — some type of bread, some type of cheese — as well as some little extras to make the sandwich really sing. I suspect I’ve rarely made the same one twice.

Whether you’re a grilled cheese improviser or creature of habit, there’s usually at least one thing you can do to help transform a good sandwich into a great one. I’m not necessarily talking about overhauling your strategy. Instead, these are small tips for making a next-level grilled cheese.

A melty, comforting grilled cheese will get you through the worst of weeks. When paired with soup, it’s a game changer.

Continued on page 22...

Sourdough Roundloaf

Butter one side of each of the pieces of bread. Place all of the bread, buttered side down, on the grill and cover the grill. Grill the bread until the bottom is lightly marked with grill marks, and the cheese is melted.

You may need to remove the plain pieces of bread first, and move the cheese covered pieces to the top grill rack and cover the grill for a couple of extra minutes, so that the

cheese melts but the bottoms of the bread slices don’t burn. That would ruin the sandwich.

Spread the mayonnaise evenly over the unbuttered sides of the 4 pieces of toast. On the melted cheese slices, layer the bacon, lettuce and tomatoes, and season with salt and pepper. Place the mayonnaise spread slices mayo-side down on the sandwiches, slice, and eat warm.

Tomato Tip

Here is a little tip so that your grilled cheese remains intact, and maintains that nice crisp crust of the bread to bite into. Sprinkle the sliced tomato with a little salt and set aside to drain, about 10 minutes. This removes the juices so you don’t get a soggy sandwich. This will improve your overall BLTC experience, and we highly recommend using this simple, yet effective trick to increase your chance of satisfaction and enjoyment of this wonderful sandwich.

Cross section of the BLTC. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine Inc.

Twisted Classics

The BLTC

Of all the quick but delicious meals I’ve leaned heavily on the past 18 months, grilled cheese is near the top of the list. I almost always have the basic ingredients around — some type of bread, some type of cheese — as well as some little extras to make the sandwich really sing. I suspect I’ve rarely made the same one twice.

Whether you’re a grilled cheese improviser or creature of habit, there’s usually at least one thing you can do to help transform a good sandwich into a great one. I’m not necessarily talking about overhauling your strategy. Instead, these are small tips for making a next-level grilled cheese. A melty, comforting grilled cheese will get you through the worst of weeks. When paired with soup, it’s a game changer.

I canvassed the Voraciously team, my food-loving Instagram followers and my own experience to compile this list of suggestions. Mix and match, or pick one to focus on. But most importantly, have fun trying them.

We’d love to hear your tips for the perfect grilled cheese! Feel free to submit recepies to our team on our website!

Use shredded cheese. As iconic as the orange slice of American cheese is, I’m with my colleague Aaron Hutcherson on a preference for shredded cheese. I find it melts faster and more evenly than slices. Plus, shredded cheese gives you more control over how much

Topping Tip

Cheese should always be the star of the show, but there’s no reason why fontina or cheddar can’t share the spotlight with a few supporting players. Bacon or sliced ham and tomatoes are no brainers, but try being more creative with your add ins. Sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions, sliced avocado and roasted red peppers can take your sandwich in delicious new directions. Thinly sliced apples or pears add brightness and contrasting texture,

Detail of the BLTC.Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine Inc.

you can put on your sandwich while making it especially easy to create your own blend should you happen to have multiple types. If you can, pull out the box grater to shred your own. Pre-shredded cheese often has added starches or additives that can prevent the ideal melty texture. Want to go even thinner? Follow the lead of Molly Baz over at Bon Appétit and use a Y-peeler to create long ribbons of cheese. Upgrade your fat. Don’t miss an opportunity to add more flavor to your grilled cheese with the fat you use to griddle it. After spending years using neutral oils (not that there’s anything wrong with them, if that’s what you like), I’ve mostly switched to other options I find more exciting.

The two I flip-flop on are salted butter and mayonnaise. Both to give my sandwiches more flavor, color and crispness than something like canola oil. Butter can be softened and spread on the bread, or you can adopt Aaron’s strategy, which is adding it to the skillet, dragging the bread through the melted

butter and then assembling the sandwich right there. Mayo works best when spread on the bread before griddling. You can add some after cooking for extra flavor if you like. Just keep an eye on your mayo- or butter-cooked sandwich, as it can get darker faster than one made with oil.

while mustard or olive tapenade add bite and nuts or potato chips add crunch. Consider adding honey, jam or chutney for a salty-sweet sandwich. If you like spice, adding some hot sauce or peppers is a good way to heat things up. Whatever you do, don’t go overboard. Remember: Cheese should always be the focus.

Cross section detail of the BLTC. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine Inc.

Detail of the BLTC ingredients before use. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine Inc.

There’s nothing quite like a grilled cheese sandwich, bread golden and toasty-brown with warm, gooey melted cheese inside. This iconic American food can be a simple snack, part of a healthy meal, or a way to experiment with your favorite wedges and other ingredients. (Heads up: If you’re interested in cooking certain cheeses on the grill, check out our guide to grilling with cheese.)

Consider this a guide to this iconic food, including the best grilled cheese recipe and grilled cheese tips to make your next grilled cheese sandwich your best yet.

We explore classic sandwiches, and put a twist on them to take them to the next level. After trying these sandwiches, you will never look at or think about grilled cheese in the same way.

Humans have combined toasted bread with cheese since, well, the existence of bread and cheese—for example, fondue and raclette. Continued on page 28...

g O d f a t h e r

Ingredients

2 pieces

4 slices

4 oz 3 oz

2 tsp. 1 pinch 1 pinch 1 tbsp.

Italian Roundloaf

Mozzarella Cheese

Meatballs

Marinara Sauce

Italian Seasoning Salt Pepper

Garlic Butter

Preheat the pan to medium low heat. Pour the marinara sauce and meatballs into pot and cook until heated through. Slice the bread to your desired thickness while meatballs are cooking. Thicker slices are recommended in order to ensure the bread does not get soggy from the sauce.

Layer two slices of provolone cheese, meatballs, and parmesan cheese. Add two more slic-

es of provolone onto that, then your second piece of bread, and you’re set!

Cook the sandwich on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese melts.

Put the sandwich under the broiler for a couple minutes, and flip for another couple of minutes for extra cripiness.

Remove the sandwich from the oven, slice in half, and enjoy!

Meatball Beginnings

Believe it or not, meatballs did not originate in Italy. So, if meatballs didn’t originate in Italy, where exactly did they come from? Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly who invented meatballs. Even though the history of meatballs is largely unknown, this dish is believed to have originated from kofta, a Persian dish containing a mixture of meats and either rice, bulger or mashed lentils. Over time, this dish eventually spread to other countries and cultures.

The Godfather fresh out of the pan. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine Inc.

Twisted Classics

The Godfather

There’s nothing quite like a grilled cheese sandwich, bread golden and toasty-brown with warm, gooey melted cheese inside. This iconic American food can be a simple snack, part of a healthy meal, or a way to experiment with your favorite wedges and other ingredients. (Heads up: If you’re interested in cooking certain cheeses on the grill, check out our guide to grilling with cheese.)

Here’s our guide to this iconic food, including the best grilled cheese recipe and grilled cheese tips to make your next grilled cheese sandwich your best yet.

What Is the Origin of The Godfather?

Humans have combined toasted bread with cheese since, well, the existence of bread and cheese—for example, fondue and raclette.

No one knows who exactly did it first, but the version most Americans probably think of— cheese melted between slices of bread toasted in a pan with butter or another cooking fat— arose with the development of sliced bread in the early 20th

century. The sandwich really took off with the advent of Kraft processed cheese singles back in the 1940s.

What You Need to Make The Godfather

The beauty of a grilled cheese sandwich is that it’s super easy to make with basic ingredients and tools you probably already have in your kitchen. Here’s everything you need to make a great grilled cheese.

Crisp Tip

This is a little tip so that your grilled cheese remains intact, and maintains that nice crisp crust of the bread to bite into. Grilling the bread beforehand will make it more crisp overall, preventing the sandwich from becoming too soggy. This will improve your overall experience, and we highly recommend using this simple, yet effective trick to increase your chance of satisfaction and enjoyment of this wonderful sandwich. This is filler text leading over to the

The Godfather straight out of the pan. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine Inc.

Kitchen Tools

A frying pan or griddle, a spatula, a small knife or cheese grater, and a heat source are all you really need to make a perfect grilled cheese sandwich at home.

Of course, if you want to up your grilled cheese game, there’s more advanced equipment, like sandwich presses, grill presses, and pie irons. Get the full rundown in our guide to grilled cheese tools.

What Is the Best Bread for Grilled Cheese?

The ever-versatile grilled cheese can be made with just about any bread you desire.

Make a classic diner-style grilled cheese sandwich with sliced white bread. Go gourmet with a rustic sourdough. One benefit of sourdough is that the fermentation process adds a pleasant tang, and sturdy sourdough bread can stand up well to lots of toppings.

You can make your grilled cheese healthy with hearty whole wheat or multigrain bread, slice up some airy, buttery brioche, or repurpose a

stale baguette or ciabatta loaf into something toasty and tasty if you’d like.

We’d love to hear your tips for the perfect grilled cheese! Feel free to submit recepies to our team on our website!

next page for another little tip to help you out. Grilling the bread beforehand will make it more crisp overall, preventing the sandwich from becoming too soggy. This will improve your overall experience, and we highly recommend using this simple, yet effective trick to increase your chance of satisfaction and enjoyment of this wonderful sandwich.

Cross section of The Godfather. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine Inc.

Detail of The Godfather and marinara with fresh basil. Photo taken by Brandt Hausch. Rights owned by Meltdown Grilled Cheese Magazine Inc.

Aaaah, the grilled cheese sandwich — almost everybody has their own version; it is truly one of the great comfort foods of all time. And here’s a fact for you: Some three-quarters of people who buy sliced cheese make at least one grilled cheese a month. While similar recipes are mentioned in ancient Roman texts — and, let’s face it, the French have been making their famous croque monsieurs since the early 1900s — today’s notion of the grilled cheese is commonly traced back to the 1920s, when Otto Frederick Rohwedder, considered “the father of sliced bread,” invented a bread slicer that made distributing white bread easy and affordable.

Shortly before that, processed cheese had been patented by James L. Kraft, an entrepreneur whose revolutionary pasteurizing process ensured that cheese wouldn’t spoil, even when transported long distances. By 1914, J.L. Kraft & Bros. Company opened its first plant in Illinois. Five years later, the company had already expanded into Canada. It was, simply, a cheap and scalable product.

Directions

Spread the mayonnaise mixture on one side of each slice of bread. Then, place the slices of bread on the skillet with the mayonnaise side down. Top each piece of bread with the sliced cheddar cheese, followed by a second slice of bread with the mayonnaise side out.

Heat the sandwich until the cheese melts and the bread is golden brown or toasted. Carefully flip the sandwich over using a spatula and the help of your opposite hand to hold the sandwich together. Cook the opposite side until that piece of bread is also golden brown. Remove, cut in half, and enjoy!

Low and Slow

Think like a barbecue pit master and exercise patience when making grilled cheese. Keep the heat in the medium to medium-low range and adjust it as you cook, ensuring that the bread toasts at the same rate that the cheese melts. You want perfectly golden brown bread with cheese oozing out the sides.

There are two types of grilled cheeses in this world. First, there’s the kind you make when you come home at 3 A.M. after a bit too much to drink, when all rules fly out the window and pretty much anything tastes delicious—including burnt bread surrounding unmelted cheese.

And then there’s the grilled cheese you should be making at all other times: perfectly golden-brown bread, melty cheese, supreme satisfaction. To get this sort of sandwich, the rules are strict but justified. Because when it comes to something so simple, there’s not a ton of wiggle room between perfect sandwich creation and sub-par, time-of-desperation snack.

Two things can happen if you rush the grilledcheese-making process. In one scenario, you quite literally take the sandwich off the of the pan before the bread reaches a deep golden-brown.

But more often, you toast (or worse, burn!) the bread before the cheese melts. This happens when your heat is too high and your pan is too hot: Before the cheese inside gets gooey, the outside of the bread blackens.

Directions

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook onion and pepper with 2 Tablespoons butter, stirring often, until onion is translucent and peppers have softened. (About 6 minutes.)

Meanwhile, heat your griddle. Lay out 4 slices of bread and place 1/4 of onion mixture on each. Top with cheese and

remaining 4 slices of bread. Cook on a well buttered griddle until bread it well toasted and cheese is melted. (About 2 minutes per side.)

Remove the sandwich from the heat and let it cool down for a couple of minutes. Slice in half, share, and enjoy!

Mayo In, Butter Out

Standard procedure for grilled cheese is to butter the outsides of the bread before placing it in the pan — for more flavor, butter both sides, inside and out.Guess what works even better? A thin layer of mayonnaise. It’s surprisingly good for browning the bread. Plus, mayo adds a hint of tanginess.

We love parm, Manchego, and feta as much as the next person, but no way are we using those in a grilled cheese recipe. Some cheeses are born to melt; others not so much. Our recipe uses a combo of Swiss (nothing beats its creamy consistency) and, to balance all that mildness, sharp cheddar. That’s a fail-proof combo, but if you want to play around, feel free. As long as your cheeses are in the melting family, you’ll be alright.

Use bread with a tight crumb. This means no hole-ridden sourdoughs or airy focaccia here. You don’t want your cheese spilling out onto the bottom of your pan and burning, now do you? We generally prefer white bread—leaving grainy loaves, ryes, and whole-wheats for other days and other sandwiches—but the choice is yours.

This is a sandwich that doesn’t need fillings—but it certainly likes them. Not just any filling, though. You’ll need to be smart about what you choose. Stay away from anything watery so that your sandwich doesn’t get soggy. Balance the fatty cheese and buttery bread with something bright.

Directions

To start, you’ll spread a thin layer of mayonnaise onto two slices of bread.

Then, you’ll top with some swiss cheese, ham, and more cheese. Add the second slice of bread on top, and then spread another layer of mayonnaise onto the top and bottom slices of bread.

Pop the sandwich into a skillet and grill until golden brown on both sides of the bread. You’ll also want to make sure that the cheese is nice and gooey, or your sandwich might not be as tasty as it could be.

Once that is the case, remove from heat, cut, and enjoy!

Cheese Tip

To get the cheese to melt over the edges like in the above photo, place the cheese on a diagonal with the corners going off the edge of the bread. When cooking the sandwich, you’ll want to keep it on low heat, and cover it with a lid. This creates steam and traps heat in for picture perfect gooey cheese.