At home? Heat a cast-iron skillet on the burner, with a pat of butter to melt. Cut two slices of whole-grain bread and spread each inside face with Dijon mustard. Assemble the sandwich with a healthy portion of Muenster or Havarti. Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise on each outside face and drop into the heated skillet. Toast on each side until both are browned. Cut on a diagonal and eat with tomato soup.
At festivals, I like to make people grilled cheese sandwiches with a flamethrower, rapid-fire, as a late-night performance thing. The ingredients are much simpler: bags of sliced bread, boxes of Kraft singles, and cooking spray.
One at a time, each hungry person pops their slices of bread and cheese into a long-handled campfire panini press. They hold the press out and away, then I light it up with the flamethrower for a 30 count. On my signal, they flip the press over, and I hit it again for 30 more seconds. Ta-da! The sandwich is ready. Pop it out, spritz the inside of the press with cooking spray, and the next person in line steps up to take their turn.
It's a lot of fun - the light and noise of the flamethrower attracts a lot of attention. People come to watch the show, then stick around to get a sandwich for themselves.
The best bread is the squishy kind (humblest of opinions, I'm sure), which is rather difficult to butter without making a crumby mess. Despite my general distrust of mayonnaise, it spreads like a dream. I do prefer the flavor of butter, so perfection is achieved by buttering frozen bread and then letting it come to room temperature. I don't have time for that crap, so mayo wins.
Shredded, melty cheese is optimal. If you're in Wisconsin, please mail me some Bleu Cheddar. I recently had some truffle-flavored cheddar, which was otherwise overwhelming but in this case divine. Shredded cheese is more uniform than whatever I can quickly produce with a chef knife; a cheese plane is probably fine but mine is attached to a big grater which is annoying to use.
The real important part is the griddle. Specifically, get it to temperature before it touches the bread. I use a cast iron pan, and flick water droplets on the pan to test the temperature. I flip three times, and smash it with the spatula after the first two flips. The goal is that the bread should be golden brown on both sides at the same time that the cheese has completely melted. As far as I can tell, this depends on every variable in your kitchen, and dialing in the perfect sandwich necessitates delicious science.
We toasted a slice of bread halfway. Then we cut it parallel to the face, from the top almost through to the bottom. We opened it up, put Velveeta cheese in there, and mustard, pepper, garlic powder. We closed it up and toasted it the rest of the way.
When I was a kid, I liked it, but now I don't like grilled cheese sandwiches (that way or any other way).
As a non-American, who hasn’t grown up with “grilled cheese sandwiches” but is nonetheless culturally aware of them: I always assumed this is what you called a “toasted sandwich”. However, I’ve since been led to believe that this is not the case and the comments here further confirm that. It thus leads me to one simple question:
Why are they “grilled”, when they’re clearly fried?
1. At least 2 different cheeses that work well together.
2. Bread shouldn't be too thick (so the cheese can melt).
3. Use butter (on the outside of the bread and/or in the pan).
The only technique is to manage the temperature - lower temperature for longer time allows the cheese melt. You want melted cheese on the inside without burning the bread and takes a bit of practice.
Mythical Kitchen have a good video on it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuP3GLXxgY0 - Josh does a great job of explaining the important points while also kind of roasting Gordon Ramsey who famously ruined something as basic as grilled cheese in one of his videos.
Butter one side of bread, brown that side of the bread, then butter the other side, flip the bread over, continue browning. Add shredded cheese to both sides, wait until cheese is visibly melted. Combine bread at the end to form sandwich - not mid-cooking.
Mostly I just find it important for the bread to be fully crispy on both sides, rather than crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.
I used to have a really fancy recipe, but after having a kid I made one with just American cheese and white bread for the first time in like 12 years and unfortunately it blew away mine.:/
Main thing is to shred the cheese before so it melts evenly. If you want to "press" it but don't have a press, put foil on top and then weigh it down with a can
At festivals, I like to make people grilled cheese sandwiches with a flamethrower, rapid-fire, as a late-night performance thing. The ingredients are much simpler: bags of sliced bread, boxes of Kraft singles, and cooking spray.
One at a time, each hungry person pops their slices of bread and cheese into a long-handled campfire panini press. They hold the press out and away, then I light it up with the flamethrower for a 30 count. On my signal, they flip the press over, and I hit it again for 30 more seconds. Ta-da! The sandwich is ready. Pop it out, spritz the inside of the press with cooking spray, and the next person in line steps up to take their turn.
It's a lot of fun - the light and noise of the flamethrower attracts a lot of attention. People come to watch the show, then stick around to get a sandwich for themselves.