I consider myself a grilled cheese connoisseur. I’ve been making and enjoying grilled cheese sandwiches for more years than I care to admit. Over that time, I’ve developed a system to make (what I think is) the best grilled cheese at home. It starts with butter, stiff bread (stale, refrigerated, whole grain) and both cheddar and Swiss cheeses. I melt the butter over medium high heat in a small skillet, add the sandwich and cover with a lid until the cheese has melted. Then, I continue to brown the bread — pressing with my spatula to brown it evenly — on both sides until dark brown and crispy. When I transfer it to the plate, I place it on top of a knife so that it won’t sweat against the plate and get soggy.
I’m happy with this system. It’s so good that I usually want another grilled cheese sandwich after I finish eating my sandwich. But when I friend shared a link on Facebook recently that advocated the use of mayonnaise to make a better grilled cheese, I decided to give it a try. The logic is that mayonnaise won’t burn quickly like butter can, so you can get a crispy sandwich with melted cheese without the worry of scorching.
The result was a sandwich that was not good. Not terrible, but not good. I like mayonnaise, but I do not like scrambled eggs, and that’s the taste I was reminded of when I ate the sandwich. It was missing the butter taste, and the mayo's egginess came through.
All that in mind, I was still curious if there was something I could do to improve my grilled cheese game. So, I consulted a couple of experts: Crystal De Luna-Bogan, chef and co-owner of The Grilled Cheeserie and Dale Levitski, executive chef at Sinema (and known for his croque-madame). I asked them what a home cook could do to get a better grilled cheese, and their advice was on opposite ends of the grilled cheese spectrum, but valuable nonetheless.
First, De Luna-Bogan revealed a number of the secrets she has for producing her melts — secrets that are obviously working, since she has one of the most award-winning and popular food trucks in the area. She says she first tried a butter-and-mayo combination, but that it was easy to get a soggy sandwich with this method because the fat seeps into the bread too easily. She now uses clarified butter (also known as ghee, which you can buy at Indian markets or make on your own) because it’s the milk solids that cause the sandwich to burn before the cheese is melted and those are removed from clarified butter. Science!
Additionally, De Luna-Bogan recommends using a heated cast-iron or other heavy pan as a press because it helps to melt the cheese faster and for even browning. She also adds that good ingredients are key, including a bread with a “tight crumb” (Grilled Cheeserie uses the country white/sourdough blend from Clarksville-based Silke’s Old World Bread Bakery) and cheeses from Sweetwater Valley Farm in East Tennessee, from English Farmstead in western North Carolina and from Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese in southern Kentucky. De Luna-Bogan says her favorite cheese of the moment is English Farmstead’s Buttercup Cheese, which is very high in milk fat and therefore very creamy. She adds that grilled cheesemakers at home can lighten up a grilled cheese by using a panini press greased with sunflower or grapeseed oil and substitute goat cheese or nut cheeses (such as dairy-free cashew cheese).
Dale Levitski, on the other hand, prefers a very traditional grilled cheese (at home), the type that most of us grew up eating. He says commercial white bread crisps nicely, but it’s crucial to melt the butter first, particularly if you don’t have soft butter to spread on your bread. Levitski also prefers Kraft Singles as his cheese of choice, but does admit that adding a high-quality cheddar makes for a great combination of cheese taste. He likes to melt a bit of cheddar in a nonstick pan and then add the sandwich for a crispy crust.
This is, of course, in stark contrast to his signature dish, the croque-madame, which he says made his career. He recently sat down to talk about the sandwich with Tasting Table, which has a video demonstration of the chef making the croque-madame as well as the recipe.
