The ultimate grilled cheese sandwich
 

What is in your perfect grilled cheese sandwich?

If you have a bag of miso kicking around in your fridge, try this. Spread a little miso on both sides of whole-grain bread, butter the other side. Add your favorite cheddar, and some tomato and basil if you want. Toast it butter side down in a frying pan. Sounds weird, but it's really good.

An idea I copied from the Food Network is to buy a freshly baked loaf of French bread, cut it in half and invert it so that the crust is in the middle, load your cheeses and put it into a panini press. The crust soaks up the cheese oils and softens.

Miso on a grilled cheese? Sounds interesting. I'll give it a shot sometime.

I like two different kinds of grilled cheese sandwiches. If I'm dipping it in tomato soup, then I just get cheddar on an artisan country loaf or sourdough and put a thin tomato slice in the middle. Very traditional.

The other one I like to make is to use rye bread, asiago, sharp cheddar, provolone, grated parmesan, banana peppers, tomato and a little horseradish. Grill that baby up and it's delicious.

Two slices of white bread
Three slices Kraft individually wrapped singles
Butter

Amen to that.

I love habanero or jalapeno jelly on my grilled cheese.

That sounds disgusting.

And by disgusting, I mean absolutely, must-try-ASAP delicious!

Where do you get jalapeno jelly?

What do you know? A kindred spirit.

You and my husband are so alike.

We have a few sources. Every farmers market I have been to in SoCal seem to have somebody selling it. I always pick up a jar when I see it. My mil makes some with peppers from her garden every year. I would bet that whole foods or Bristol Farms sells some but I am not sure.

Another good treat is a sesame cracker bread with cream cheese and pepper jelly. I love this snack during football games, but I usually end up eating way too much cream cheese than what would be recommended for good health.

x2.

Didn't know there was another way. You can tell who grew up poor or not.

Is it that hard to find? It seems like I've seen it at most grocery stores.

Exactly, in fact I would toast my bread, put some butter on it, put the cheese in the middle and microwave it for 30 seconds.

A frying pan for a grilled cheese? Are you kidding me?

Whoa nelly, what you are proposing isn't even in the same realm of taste as a pan fried sammich.

As an aside, we always referred to them as toasted cheese sammiches in our house.

Shouldn't that be toasted cheese sammiches?

interesting that of all the incarnations of grilled cheese sandwich (toaster, frying pan, microwave) none of them involve cooking the sandwich on a grill.

My passionate argument that toasted is the more appropriate label rather than grilled is what won my wife's heart for me. She still says grilled, but mostly out of habit.

And Surfah's right, sammiches it is.

your wife is up in the night. if something is cooked in a pan, it is not toasted.

You would be correct to call them fried cheese sammiches. Or seared cheese sammiches.

I think we can both agree that "grilled" is not the correct term of art.

Listen dude, I used a dictionary and everything. The bread, by whatever method, reaches a state of toastyness and is thus toasted.

Agreed, grilled is wrong.

Perhaps we should just keep it simple and call them Maillard convection cheese sammiches.

Wouldn't it be more correct to call them Maillard REACTION cheese sammiches?

The youngest boy just calls them melted cheese sandwiches.

good point. it has been years, so cut me some slack.

Isnt reaction the entire process? convection is the movement of heat to cook the bread?

Look, the point is that they aren't grilled and we seem to both be on the same page on that one.

No, we need to nit pick this down to the bloody stumps damnit.

As to your question, I have no idea. I had to look it up after you posted it.

I cant remember which chem class it was, but the lab guy shows up with all this food and he tells us that we are going to learn about maillard convection (maybe it was reaction, like i said....it has been over a decade). We made toast, biscuits and had a nice little snack.

I have no idea who maillard is.

Why in the hell would you waste your time with jalapeno jelly when there is habanero jelly. What are you some sort of spice wussy.

I like Colby-Jack cheese with Del Taco Scorcho sauce. The cheese and scorcho melted on buttery bread is delicious.

I forgot to add that I eat it with my special Ramen noodle recipe:

Boil two cups of water, noodles, and a chili pepper
When noodles are done, stir in an egg, and boil until done

This is one of my favorite meals. It's not only delicious, but costs under a dollar!

I loathe grilled cheese. I haven't had one in probably ten years.

It goes great with spam casserole.

You don't make it for your kids?

The other night when I came home late from work two little triangles remained from my daughter's grilled cheese sandwich. So I promptly popped them in my mouth and ate them. My daughter came back into the dining room a half hour later to find the rest of her dinner eaten and started wailing. I had to make her a bean burrito.

Actually Surf - it wasn't a bean burrito. You just filled it with chili from your own bowl, that is how poor we are.

However, I don't truly think certain foods reflect economic status. Once when I was in high school I was at a friends house and they had Sloppy Joes for dinner. I made the comment that I had never eaten Sloppy Joes before. My friend's rude aunt replied, "Well your family must have been a lot more rich than this one!" I actually grew up lower middle class, no doubt about it. And I have never eaten more Sloppy Joes than I have in the past 3 months living with my husband's parents, who are easily making more than 3 times the amount my parents ever will.

P.S. Sloppy Joes are very gross, and although my family might have been crudely "not rich" I am glad my parents never subjected me to such atrocious cuisine.

Not all sloppy joes are created equal. Manwiches, to be sure, are vile and probably what they fed the Manticore on Star Wars.

Is there a different way to make sloppy joes other than adding tomato sauce to ground beef?

One suggestion:
-Instead of ground beef, use chicken breast
-Instead of tomato sauce, use alfredo sauce
-Instead of spooning it onto a bun, mix it with spinach alfredo

I call it a sloppy guiseppi

Hahaha... well, I don't actually add that much tomato sauce to my sloppy joes and instead use more Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and other more appetizing fillers.

Your suggestion does sound excellent, though. ;)

giuseppi, actually.

the "i" makes the "g" soft so it is pronouncd joo-SEP-pee

Spelled "guiseppi" the "g" is hard so it is pronounced gwee-SEP-pee.

Just thought you'd like to know.

What? I love sloppy joes provided they aren't soggy. I can't do the soggy bun thing.

the reason sloppy joes are gross are because they contain ground beef. which is gross.

Gidget, I agree that certain foods do not necessarily indicate economic status. There is a very famous restaurant in NYC, Union Square Cafe (coincidentally USC!)......specializes in comfort food at outrageous prices....meatloaf, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, chicken noodle soup, etc..

Those things are still classics.

Also, I love going to a nice taco stand in East LA and having dinner for $5....6 al pastor tacos and a pina or an horchata.

I will pass on the Sucio Jose, though. Thanks.

[quote=TripletDaddy;294699]the reason sloppy joes are gross are because they contain ground beef. which is gross./quote]

Do you not like burgers?