Anatomy of a Grilled Cheese 🥪

Making the Perfect Sando at home

It’s hard to beat the combo of a grilled cheese sandwich with a side bowl of tomato soup. Ultimate comfort food status.

In case you missed it, my favorite tomato soup recipe was published a few weeks ago

To dunk, or not to dunk? That is the question

Ingredients and execution separate a heavenly grilled cheese from an average, bland disappointment.

Bread and Cheese… that’s it. (well, mostly)

Since many of you have asked here’s how I make a perfect grilled cheese at home.

This isn’t a ‘recipe’. It’s more of a method and you can adapt as you like.

You will need:

Softened Salted Butter

White sandwich loaf (not sourdough, not baguette, not challah… just good ol’ fresh baked white bread loaf available in your local bakery or supermarket bakery section) cut into 1.5 inch slices. This is why you need to buy a loaf and cut your own bread slices. Storebought are too thin to make the perfect bread-to-cheese ratio.

4 cheeses- American (melting), Provolone (melting), Emmental (flavor) & Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino (golden brown crusts).

Assembling the Sandwich

Put a pan on medium heat. (I used a cast iron griddle but stainless steel, carbon steel, etc all work)

Take the soft butter and generously butter both sides of the bread.

Place what will be inside of the sandwich bread face down in the warm pan and toast until golden.

When the bread is almost perfectly golden shave the parmigiano generously over the tops of the untoasted bread (that’s about to be flipped over).

Now flip one slice of bread over, and layer in 2 slices of american cheese, 2 slices emmantal and finish with 2 slices provolone.

Take the unflipped bread slice and put the toasted side on the cheese and gently press to make a sandwich.

Once the bottom of the sandwich is golden brown carefully flip over and toast the remaining side.

Remove to a cutting board and allow to rest for 2-3 mins.

Slice, serve and dunk away in some luscious tomato soup!

Why this makes the best grilled cheese?

If you made it this far and want the “why” here it is.

We want a white bread that is sturdy enough to hold together but not too rich. Since we are applying butter to both sides a brioche etc would be too rich.

A sourdough or country boule would most likely not have the best crumb structure which we need to hold on to all that butter and get a great crust.

For the cheeses, putting 2 great melters around a really flavorful cheese gets us the best of both worlds. Regular grilled cheese can sometimes taste like gooey toasted bread… we want some cheesy flavor so the Emmantal is perfect for this.

Shaving the parm on the crust side adds even more cheesy umami flavor and helps the crust develop.

By toasting the inside of the sandwich bread first it allows the cheese to start melting quicker inside of the sandwich while the outside toasts.

Win-Win!

I hope you enjoy this riff on the classic grilled cheese and share with your friends.