Crispy Grilled Cheese

Add a gourmet spin on a comfort classic for a dinner kids and adults will love. Make grilled cheese for dinner! However, you don’t want to make a lackluster grilled cheese that’s not crispy. You may think the secret ingredient is butter, but it’s NOT. You’ll make the best grilled cheese with mayo!

Grilled Cheese with Mayo

Plated delivers excellent, repeatable recipes – and not necessarily meals you’d think to make. Gourmet grilled cheese with fig was the latest recipe. I assumed this one would be a winner and was not disappointed.

One of the ingredients was puzzling to me.

Mayonnaise?

Yes, a grilled cheese with mayo is the gourmet trick to get the best grilled cheese sandwich. Not butter.

My husband commented he’d just read this very same technique in a NY Times Food article.

In the article “Grilled Cheese Sandwich,” the author points out, “Since mayonnaise is made mostly from oil and salt, it makes sense to use it as the cooking medium for a stovetop sandwich. If you cook it in butter, the bread will tend to burn before the cheese is melted.”

Since mayonnaise is made mostly from oil and salt, it makes sense to use it as the cooking medium for a stovetop sandwich. If you cook it in butter, the bread will tend to burn before the cheese is melted.

NY Times Cooking

There is much debate in the comments section over the merits of butter v. mayo.

In my opinion, mayo wins. As does combining fontina and Brie with a fig compote.

Our gourmet grilled cheese was perfectly crunchy, the cheese was nice and oozy, and the fig compote added a trace of sweet, which complimented the cherry notes in the bold Layer Cake Primitivo (a Zin) we opened.

Grilled Cheese Ideas

Sam the Cooking Guy has a twist on the grilled cheese:

Would you try this? Here are some more ideas:

• Brie and apple grilled cheese
• Bon Apetit’s best-ever grilled cheese (also recommends mayo!)
• 50 different grilled cheese ideas from the Food Network
• Taste of Home lists the best cheeses for grilled cheese
• The Thrillest lists 9 cheeses for the best grilled cheese

grilled cheese cheese

What’s your favorite cheese for grilled cheese? You want a cheese that will melt. (Note: don’t buy pre-shredded cheese, the additives that keep it from clumping in the bag also prevents it from melting well.)

• American
• White American
• Havarti
• Monterrey Jack
• Brie

Grilled Cheese Add-Ins

If you’re not a purist, here are some ideas to jazz up your grilled cheese sandwich:

• Bacon (can you get much better than a grilled cheese with bacon? Probably not.)
• Tomato
• Pesto
• Veggies like spinach, mushrooms, peppers, onions, zucchini

Grilled Cheese Bread

• Fresh Market’s Panini Bread is fantastic
• Italian Bread
• White Sandwich Bread

Sorry, I won’t even bother wheat. No, thanks. If I’m indulging in a melted cheese concoction, opting for a healthier sandwich bread is not where I’m going to make my healthy choice.