grilled cheesus!

April 28, 2012 9:59 AM

Did you know April is Grilled Cheese Month? You still have time to celebrate! (via Tastespotting)

*The Month of Grilled Cheese at Pithy & Cleaver (includes Tomato Soup Grilled Cheese where "the soup is in the sandwich")
*12 Ways to Grill Your Cheese at Brit&Co. (includes Green Bean Casserole Grilled Cheese Sliders)
*40 amazing grilled cheese sandwich recipes at Buzzfeed (includes Grilled Beer and Cheese Sandwich)
*April is Grilled Cheese Month at Marcella the Cheesemonger (grilled cheese ideas with fancy cheeses)
*25 Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwiches at NowPublic (includes Kimchi Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Gochujang Ketchup for Dipping)

(previously on MeFi... and no, not a month of that kind of grilled cheese)

posted by flex (48 comments total)

Love it!
posted by lotusmish at 9:59 AM on April 28, 2012

Bravo! Might have to run out and get some bread so we can have grilled cheese later!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:04 AM on April 28, 2012

April is the cheesiest month....
posted by Fizz at 10:05 AM on April 28, 2012 [4 favorites]

i just woke up and am really hungover and this post is killing me someone make me 2 grilled cheeses
posted by nathancaswell at 10:08 AM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

with tomato soup thx
posted by nathancaswell at 10:09 AM on April 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

I was just thinking of whipping together some asiago-smothered garlic bread.
posted by Ardiril at 10:10 AM on April 28, 2012

SO HONGRAY
posted by elizardbits at 10:10 AM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

April is the cheesiest month....

It is indeed! April 11 is National Cheese Fondue Day, April 12 is National Grilled Cheese Day, and April 17 is National Cheese Ball Day... be sure to mark your calendars for next year.
posted by flex at 10:11 AM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Grill me a cheese.
posted by logicpunk at 10:12 AM on April 28, 2012

Bread, cheddar, datil pepper jelly, and fry both sides in a generous amount of olive oil.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:14 AM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

please can someone make me this plz plz
posted by elizardbits at 10:15 AM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh wow, we just finished a round of grilled cheese sammiches here.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 10:17 AM on April 28, 2012

Previously (and what first came to mind)
posted by luftmensch at 10:19 AM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

scrape a little mayo on the outside so it gets that wonderful slightly sour crust
posted by nathancaswell at 10:20 AM on April 28, 2012

Today is the Grilled Cheese Invitational and I'm stuck here at work. =(
posted by carsonb at 10:28 AM on April 28, 2012

But, but, grilled cheese sandwiches are a fall/winter kind of dish, not a spring/summer one? Why make April the month? This smacks of collusion....
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:32 AM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

We are making the french onion soup grilled cheese for dinner now, so thank you.
posted by Nimmie Amee at 10:34 AM on April 28, 2012

How are we almost twenty comments in without the reverse-snobbery contingent having swooped in to remind us that a proper grilled cheese sandwich can only be made with Wonder Bread, Kraft Singles, and Parkay Spread Stick or whatever?

For my part, I like mustard rye bread, red wine cheddar, veggie sausage (which I make—I like the store-bought stuff fine, but it really strains the definition of "food"), and thinly sliced Granny Smith apples. Garlic-dill pickle in the sandwich on on the side, whichever.
posted by wreckingball at 10:53 AM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Sharp cheddar + mustard + thinly sliced apple= best grilled cheese filling ever!
posted by peppermind at 10:55 AM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Gotta chop a fresh jalapeño up in there too.
posted by moonmilk at 11:02 AM on April 28, 2012

Now that you mention it, I feel that fancy bread does not work well for a grilled cheese. The texture of the bread overwhelms the cheese...
posted by Night_owl at 11:09 AM on April 28, 2012

Bread obtained! Along with some apples and tomato soup! Yum yum!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:19 AM on April 28, 2012

April is also ran-out-of-student-loan-money-and-currently-unemployed-month for me, so by extension, it was already Grilled Cheese month without me even realizing it... Just had an old cheddar, onion and mustard grilled cheese with sriracha ketchup.
posted by kansakwens at 11:40 AM on April 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

Mustard, you say? We have some amazing whole-seed mustard here, maybe I should try that.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:42 AM on April 28, 2012

The first episode of my favorite cooking show has all you need to know about making grilled cheese sandwiches (namely, don't forget the cheese). Later, she devoted another episode to the topic of how to proceed in the event that you did not, in fact, forget the cheese.
posted by solotoro at 11:53 AM on April 28, 2012

Can we talk about technique- how do you make a grilled cheese and not burn it? I almost always burn my sandwiches and it drives me crazy.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:05 PM on April 28, 2012

What are you cooking them on? We have a nice cheap griddle that I bought at a Latino grocery store in Chicago for like 7 USD-- we maintain it the same as cast iron, never wash with soap, let it build a good seasoning layer, then we cook with medium to low heat. We'd have to be trying to burn the sandwiches at this point.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:09 PM on April 28, 2012

Pfft...

Like when the heck is it NOT grilled cheese month. I generally am either contemplating grilled cheese sandwiches eating them or thinking back on great grilled cheese sandwiches I've had in the past. There was this one perfect sandwich I made back in 2006 or 2007...man, it was so perfect I don't even want to contemplate the mysteries of that motherfucker...

elizardbits: please can someone make me this plz plz

I could come close to that I think...
posted by Skygazer at 12:09 PM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

When's hardcore taters month?
posted by jepler at 12:10 PM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Can we talk about technique- how do you make a grilled cheese and not burn it? I almost always burn my sandwiches and it drives me crazy.

Sounds like whatever your spreading onto the bread (butter perhaps?) is burning too quickly. Butter burns too quickly. So does olive oil I think. Don't let the pan get so hot.
posted by Skygazer at 12:11 PM on April 28, 2012

*It could also be the pan. I find cast iron gets too hot and burns stuff too quickly.
posted by Skygazer at 12:12 PM on April 28, 2012

Skygazer, maybe you're just being impatient with your cast iron? If you heat it slowly it shouldn't get too hot, but it takes a good long while to come up to temperature.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:14 PM on April 28, 2012

Sharp cheddar + mustard + thinly sliced apple= best grilled cheese filling ever!

Umm...you forgot the bacon!!
posted by Fizz at 12:33 PM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME??? IT'S ALMOST MAY, YOU JERKS!!!!
posted by Sys Rq at 12:39 PM on April 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

Ardiril: I was just thinking of whipping together some asiago-smothered garlic bread.

I don't know if it's the case with all Asiago, but the kind I can get (forgot the name might be BelGioso if my photographic mind's eye is working okay today), melts beautifully and is so friggin' addictive...

Which is all to say: Asiago cheese? That stuff melts something beautiful, yo.
posted by Skygazer at 12:43 PM on April 28, 2012

The technique I heard for grilled cheeses is to start them off in a cast-iron pan, just to brown the bread, and finish them off in the oven; and also, to start with shredded cheese rather than sliced, so that it melts faster.

There's a dark art to getting the bread-browning perfectly in sync with the cheese-melting.
posted by Jeanne at 1:31 PM on April 28, 2012

http://cdn.buzznet.com/assets/users16/waymofo/default/sexy-grilled-cheese--large-msg-120892054984.jpg
posted by scouringpad at 1:56 PM on April 28, 2012

There's a dark art to getting the bread-browning perfectly in sync with the cheese-melting.

Setting the stove to medium heat isn't that hard, is it?
posted by Sys Rq at 1:58 PM on April 28, 2012

For the New Yorkers, the Gorilla Cheese van that's in Union Square often is really good.
posted by jonmc at 2:31 PM on April 28, 2012

Cheese sammich voodoo. Please don't stone me as a heretic since it's not cooked in butter, mayo or olive oil.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 2:48 PM on April 28, 2012

I do the toast-it-in-cast-iron-then-finish-under-the-broiler thing. But that's mostly because our new kitchen has just a badass broiler, I mean seriously you turn it on and it goes all FOOMP and you can feel your facial hair crisping a little bit and you lean in carefully and wave food in its general direction and you've got a lovely toasty brown crusty melty thing on your hands. So it's best to use a pan instead.

Every damn thing I cook since we moved in I'm trying to find an excuse to sprinkle something melty on top and finish it under the broiler. We've been adequately celebrating Grilled Cheese Sandwich month is what I'm saying.
posted by ook at 2:52 PM on April 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

The best part of a grilled cheese sandwich is when some of the cheese escapes and is burned in the pan.
posted by Morrigan at 3:22 PM on April 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'd hate to be in a public school cafeteria. probably very farty this month?
posted by Doctormobogo at 3:39 PM on April 28, 2012

I gotta pimp my friend's blog, where she's been documenting a new grilled cheese recipe every day. She has good mix of fancy and old school recipes.
posted by Friday14 at 5:01 PM on April 28, 2012

Can we talk about technique- how do you make a grilled cheese and not burn it? I almost always burn my sandwiches and it drives me crazy.

Obviously a too-hot pan will do this, but I suspect it's the butter you're using. That is to say, butter. It burns and scorches rather easily, which leads me to my guilty secret in regards to grilled cheese: I use margarine. I know, I know, but margarine is so much easier to cook with, at least as far as avoiding that scorched butter problem. At least I use real cheese!
posted by zardoz at 4:03 AM on April 29, 2012

Heck Yeah, Grilled Cheese (tumblr)
posted by flex at 7:25 PM on April 29, 2012

Actually using a pan is all sorts of annoyance from burnt stuff to acrid smoke to the washing and all that. Most of the time I just toast the bread a bit put on the cheese usually one sort to keep the flavor pure...a nice cheddar or swiss is miraculous, stick that shit on the bread and melt it up. Presto chango, grilled melted cheese unoily cheese sandwich. For non toaster oven folks that only have a regular two slot toaster get pocket pita's. Toast them up a bit, not much at all open'em up, stick the cheese in, put'em back in the toaster with the pocket slots up, melt the cheese (not too much or the pita gets too brittle) and wham-o in 3 mins you have a pita grilled cheese and no oil and no acrid smoke and no frying pan to wash. You can also stick in some ham, salami, or whatever luncheaon meat you want at the end there and the luncheon meat is still nice and cold and the cheese is all melting. Do it.
posted by Skygazer at 7:17 PM on April 30, 2012

If the cheese pools too much at the bottom of the pita's pocket, use a fork to spread it out more evenly. You will occassionally get a cheese leak in your pita. Not to worry it will fall harmlessly to the bottom of the toaster's residue plate which you'll need to clean more regularly. Also the times here are no more than 30 seconds to a minute of pre-heating the pita and maybe another minute or two with the cheese. It's very quick and I'd like to add that I've never ever had a cheese fire. It's very safe. Wooden tongs are good to grab the pita out too. Although a fork stuck in the pita (not the heating elements!!) works fine as well. Please exercise caution. YMMV. IANAL or a D. Patent Pending. All Rights Preserved.
posted by Skygazer at 7:31 PM on April 30, 2012