Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with a clothes iron.

September 30, 2005 10:17 AM

Clever experiment on how to grill cheese sandwiches using a clothes iron.
posted by mrkredo (44 comments total)

My first post, and of course i screwed up. Can someone please fix 'experiment'?
posted by mrkredo at 10:18 AM on September 30, 2005

Well, the third sandwich looks (and apparently tastes) enough like 'excrement' that 'exprement' isn't too far off.
posted by wakko at 10:20 AM on September 30, 2005

You're thinking that iron is too dirty to use again for clothes, right?
Next: How to smooth out those wrinkled shirts with a toaster.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:26 AM on September 30, 2005

I've known about this trick for 20 years. But I heard you're supposed to wrap the sandwhich in tinfoil first.
posted by orange swan at 10:31 AM on September 30, 2005

I always wrapped the iron rather than the sandwhich in foil, makes for some great Cubanos.
posted by TungstenChef at 10:36 AM on September 30, 2005

I always wrap my head in tinfoil. That way, the gubmint can't beam it's programming into my brain from the iron.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 10:41 AM on September 30, 2005

I think I first saw this done in a movie.
posted by alumshubby at 10:52 AM on September 30, 2005

I was expecting the experimenter to be a college student, not a retiree.
posted by smackfu at 10:53 AM on September 30, 2005

I'm with orange swan here. Isn't this just something that's widely known reconfigured for the internet? BTW, another wrinkle on this is to cook food on your engine while you drive: works very well for fish, assuming you wrap it securelu in foil.
posted by rhymer at 10:53 AM on September 30, 2005

Indeed, the retiree bit is novel. I blame the endless adolescence that today's culture has engendered. If you've still got a playstation in your 40s, you'll be grilling sandwiches with appliances in your 60s.
posted by rhymer at 10:56 AM on September 30, 2005

Mmm, I love it when my freshly pressed shirts smell like cheese, toast and butter!
posted by fenriq at 11:02 AM on September 30, 2005

I also thought you were supposed to wrap the iron in foil. And now I'm jonesing a cubano.

Along the same lines as the cooking on your engine (I think a book called Manifold Cookbook was all about this) my dad used to cook fish in his dishwasher. No dishes or soap - just fish. He saw it done on the Tonight Show in the early 70's and swore it was the best way to cook fish. Obviously this was a "post-divorce" craze at his apartment.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 11:13 AM on September 30, 2005

You can also warm up food using the heating plate on a coffee maker. This is especially helpful for cooking ramen in a hotel room (if that room happens to have a coffee maker).
posted by lunalaguna at 11:38 AM on September 30, 2005

Don't use steam, that's for sure.
posted by tomplus2 at 11:39 AM on September 30, 2005

I was expecting the experimenter to be a college student, not a retiree.

I had the same moment of surprise when I saw his picture. Then I felt like an ageist prick. Man wants to grill some cheese with an iron, man oughta be allowed to grill some cheese with an iron, even if he was probably already 50 when Benny & Joon came out.
posted by gurple at 11:40 AM on September 30, 2005

I think I first saw this done in a movie.

Good catch. Reminds me of the first link in this thread.
posted by itchylick at 11:47 AM on September 30, 2005

On a similar theme, frying bacon with an iron, and boiling pasta using a kettle. [embedded video in both links]
posted by greycap at 11:51 AM on September 30, 2005

Though Johnny Depp did make the sandwiches with much flare, he got the recipe from this guy.
posted by TTNoelle at 12:06 PM on September 30, 2005

I think I first saw this done in a movie.

Me too
posted by Emperor Yamamoto's Eggs at 12:06 PM on September 30, 2005

I just got an email from autor of this page. They are afraif for their bandwith...
posted by mrkredo at 12:10 PM on September 30, 2005

You can also warm up food using the heating plate on a coffee maker. This is especially helpful for cooking ramen in a hotel room (if that room happens to have a coffee maker).

This sounds awfully like living in a minimum security prision rather than a hotel.
posted by Keith Talent at 12:17 PM on September 30, 2005

No mention of cooking hot dogs by plugging them into an electrical outlet?

(I don't recommend this -- you can throw a breaker, shock or burn yourself because of variations in conductivity of the hot dog, and it doesn't actually cook them very well.)
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:23 PM on September 30, 2005

Someone should tell Jason "Kevin Mitnick of Popcorn" Kottke about this hot tip.
posted by mkultra at 12:26 PM on September 30, 2005

(Oh, and it can corrode the tips of the leads that you insert into the ends of the hot dogs which, depending on what you use, could result in your ingesting some pretty unwholesome metal residues when you eat the result.)
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:28 PM on September 30, 2005

Meh. I just spray my sandwiches with Febreze.
posted by gimonca at 12:42 PM on September 30, 2005

I once had a jazz history professor tell the story of some dude who traveled a lot with a big band in the fifties, who didn't get paid well and who could cook a chicken with an iron, and would, regularly.
posted by Divine_Wino at 12:54 PM on September 30, 2005

Use of the cotton setting was beyond the scope of this experiment.

Made the whole article for me. Nice find, mrkredo.
posted by muddgirl at 1:18 PM on September 30, 2005

I use a frying pan. weird.
posted by sdrawkcab at 1:30 PM on September 30, 2005

If Johnny Depp wanted to make a grilled cheese for me using the VCR , I'd be happy.
posted by bat at 1:58 PM on September 30, 2005

If you liked ironing sandwiches, you may also enjoy Thanksgiving dinner in a garbage can.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:15 PM on September 30, 2005

I'm almost surprised this wasn't put up on Kottke's site as a "grilled cheese hack."
posted by clevershark at 3:30 PM on September 30, 2005

Damn, someone beat me to the Kottke reference...
posted by clevershark at 3:31 PM on September 30, 2005

If Johnny Depp wanted to use any of my appliances to make me anything, I'd be happy.
posted by Specklet at 3:50 PM on September 30, 2005

I blame the endless adolescence that today's culture has engendered.

You make that sound like a bad thing. When I'm 80, I'll put up a guide on how to make grilled cheese sandwiches with a jet pack.
posted by I Love Tacos at 4:24 PM on September 30, 2005

A person can get by quite nicely with an iron, a popcorn popper, or a small George Forman Grill. Back in the day when I lived in L.A. next door to RATT, me and my best friend cooked Hamburger Helper every day in the popper. Griiled cheese when we could steal cheese fron Ralph's with a Salvation Army Store iron. I'm not poor now but I do use the GFG for everything from egg rolls to pizza to s'mores. God Bless America.
posted by shockingbluamp at 4:31 PM on September 30, 2005

Anyone remember the hotdog cooking appliance where you would impale the weiners on electrodes on each end, close the plastic lid, flick the switch and and watch while they were electrocuted to steamy, tasty readiness?
posted by longsleeves at 5:05 PM on September 30, 2005

A definition if the word "clever" of which I was previously unaware.
posted by Joeforking at 5:26 PM on September 30, 2005

Longsleeves, we had one of those hot dog execution devices. Quite a nifty little appliance, and I hadn't thought of it in maybe 25 years.

Nothing whetted the appetite better than the smell of ozone and scorched wieners. Yummmmmm.
posted by John Smallberries at 6:56 PM on September 30, 2005

My mom used to do this all the time when she was a kid. Tinfoil keeps you from getting yelled at by your mother.
posted by The Cardinal at 7:08 PM on September 30, 2005

Can someone please fix 'experiment'?

done.
posted by jessamyn at 7:47 PM on September 30, 2005

My grandfather thought it was pretty cool to cook a meal
on the engine of his truck during long trips.
posted by bat at 10:58 PM on September 30, 2005

jessamyn: Thank you!
posted by mrkredo at 11:04 PM on September 30, 2005

This also works for steaks, with foil, of course...
posted by mcchesnj at 9:53 PM on October 2, 2005

My grandfather thought it was pretty cool to cook a meal
on the engine of his truck during long trips.

I have a cookbook dedicated to this exact topic. Sadly, I haven't ever used it.
posted by I Love Tacos at 3:49 PM on October 3, 2005