The American Grilled Cheese Sandwich Essay (2024)

The most important lesson about Grilled Cheese that I have learned is that you can buy a mix of expensive cheese, get a nice fresh loaf of sourdough bread, high quality grass fed butter. You can really make an exquisite, amazing, grilled cheese that would cost $25 at a mediocre restaurant with a side of fries. However, a 4 year old will prefer one made out of kraft singles on white.

Instead of butter I prefer to use Mayonnaise as the fat spread on the bread to cook in the pan. It does a fantastic job.

Reminds me of the exact opposite opinion (a meltdown one might even say, as mentioned in the top comment) someone on r/grilledcheese:

> You people make me sick.

> A grilled cheese consists of only these following items. Cheese. Bread with spread (usually butter). This entire subreddit consist of "melts". Almost every "grilled cheese" sandwich i see on here has other items added to it. The fact that this subreddit is called "grilledcheese" is nothing short of utter blasphemy.

> Let me start out by saying I have nothing against melts, I just hate their association with sandwiches that are not grilled cheeses. Adding cheese to your tuna sandwich? It's called a Tuna melt. Totally different. Want to add bacon and some pretentious bread crumbs with spinach? I don't know what the hell you'd call that but it's not a grilled cheese.

> I would be more than willing to wager I've eaten more grilled cheeses in my 21 years than any of you had in your entire lives. I have one almost everyday and sometimes more than just one sandwich. Want to personalize your grilled cheese? Use a mix of different cheeses or use sourdough or french bread. But if you want to add some pulled pork and take a picture of it, make your own subreddit entitled "melts" because that is not a fucking grilled cheese.

> I'm not a religious man nor am I anything close to a culinary expert. But as a bland white mid-western male I am honestly the most passionate person when it comes to grilled cheese and mac & cheese. All of you foodies stay the hell away from our grilled cheeses and stop associating your sandwich melts with them. Yet again, it is utter blasphemy and it rocks me to the core of my pale being.

> Shit, I stopped lurking after 3 years and made this account for the sole purpose of posting this. I've seen post after post of peoples "grilled cheeses" all over reddit and it's been driving me insane. The moment I saw this subreddit this morning I finally snapped. Hell, I may even start my own subreddit just because I know this one exists now.

> You god damn heretics. Respect the grilled cheese and stop changing it into whatever you like and love it for it what it is. Or make your damn melt sandwich and call it for what it is. A melt.

https://www.reddit.com/r/grilledcheese/comments/2or1p3/you_p...

This author is wrong. You may not add onions, avocado, or any of those other things to a grilled cheese sandwich, at least not if you are trying to make a grilled cheese sandwich. Once you start adding veggies or meat, it becomes a melt. There's nothing wrong with a melt! But words mean things, and you can't just call any sandwich you like a grilled cheese just because the bread is toasted and it has melted cheese inside.

> This is not a column where I will carp and complain—about air-fryer grilled cheeses, or fancy gourmet grilled cheeses, or Kraft-single grilled cheeses, or the proper application of butter, or the appropriate pan, or the degree and nature of the condiments. To me, each grilled cheese is enough, and more than enough. In this world so full of slaughter and fire, where doubt and monstrosity abound, this much is clear to me: the grilled cheese is a small and perfect thing.

Amen.

I love me a grilled cheese sandwich and I'm not picky about it, but if you want to take the time to put in the extra effort, the following recipe is the best grilled cheese you'll ever make:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020107-french-onion-gri...

If you have some fresh tomatoes on hand, this is almost as tasty and a lot easier (and not technically grilled cheese, since no grilling is involved, nor a sandwich unless you want to call it open faced):

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1024469-tomato-cheddar-t...

Ok, I am about to dig in, but a person willing to write about food most anyone can cook and give me Branaugh's Henry V is an instant read.

Rye bread, cheddar, and a 50/50 mix of butter and bacon grease in the pan.

This always comes to mind whenever [grilled] cheese sandwiches do:

> I was reminded of a conversation I had with an American military intelligence officer who was having a supper of Jack Daniel's and Coca-Cola at a Kigali bar.

> "I hear you're interested in genocide," the American said. "Do you know what genocide is?"

> I asked him to tell me.

> "A cheese sandwich," he said. "Write it down. Genocide is a cheese sandwich."

> I asked him how he figured that.

> "What does anyone care about a cheese sandwich?" he said. "Genocide, genocide, genocide. Cheese sandwich, cheese sandwich, cheese sandwich. Who gives a shit? Crimes against humanity. Where's humanity? Who's humanity? You? Me? Did you see a crime committed against you? Hey, just a million Rwandans. Did you ever hear about the Genocide Convention?"

> I said I had.

> "That convention," the American at the bar said, "makes a nice wrapping for a cheese sandwich."

From "We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda" by Philip Gourevitch.

I feel obligated to note the grilled-cheese-adjacent brie and butter sandwich of Twin Peaks notoriety.

Grilled cheeses should be outlawed.