What's that? I promised in MAY(!!) to write about the best grilled cheese sandwich I'd ever made, as well as sugar & honey encrusted pancakes? Huh. Sorry! At least it's within the same year. At the time of said post, I had actually tumbled the needed link for the grilled cheese, so let's start there.
Here's the jist: what's the best part of a grilled cheese sandwich? Perhaps it's the toasty, buttery bread for you. But for me, it's the crusty, crunchy, oh-so-delicious cheese that gets a little extra pan time.
Well, grilled cheese artisans Alex Brown and Evan George said to themselves, "If that's the best part, why not cover the sammy in it?" And with that, they've gone on to dominate the Grilled Cheese invitational for years. I heard them interviewed on Kevin & Bean, immediately tracked them down, and did as they commanded.
Basically, you throw shredded cheese on the pan, then grill your sammy on top of it, pressing down firmly. Then throw more cheese down and flip the sammy onto that to encrust both sides.
I did this. It was delicious.
Now, there was one hurdle I had to overcome. They called for Taleggio & Mimolette, two cheeses I had never heard of, nor could I track down in stores around my house. I did find a cheesemonger on the other side of town (always good to know where your mongers are), but they only had one of them.
So I wrote the Hot Knives (that's Alex & Evan's biz name) and asked for substitutes. Their (quick and friendly) response:
A good Parmesan could easily replace Mimolette. But Taleggio is relatively easy to find and perfect for this sandwich, don't sub anything.
Honestly, at this point, I don't remember what I did. I know I used parm, but I don't think I ever got Taleggio. I also used regular white bread. Whatever. Experiment. Have fun. Enjoy.
The Perfect Grilled Cheese by Hot Knives
Equipment
- Cast iron skillet
- Clean dish towel
- Metal spatula
-
Serrated knife
-
Microplane grater
- Grill brush
Ingredients
- 2 slices Sourdough Ciabatta style bread
- 2 oz. Taleggio
- 1 oz. Mimolette
- 1 Tbs. French-style butter
Instructions
- Bake a loaf of bread (optional, but highly suggested).
- Take butter out of fridge and store near the stove to get it soft and spreadable.
- Slice your Taleggio with a thin knife.
- Grate the Mimolette with the microplane.
- Store the cheeses on a cutting board or in bowls while you prepare the rest of the fixings. Cheese should be room temp before hitting the pan.
- Slice your bread into 2-centimeter thick pieces, just a tad fatter than store bought bread. Butter the outer side of each piece, from tip to tip.
- Place your pan on high heat for a couple minutes. Reduce heat to medium, and start lubing with butter. Gauge how hot the pan is by whether the butter burns (too hot) or just quickly sizzles (perfect). Heavily butter the center of the pan and immediately hit with a large pinch of Mimolette, distributing the cheese roughly in the shape of a piece of bread. Quickly follow it up by placing the bread slice on top, butter-side down obviously. Top with Tallegio slices (just enough to cover bread completely) and the second bread slice butter-side up.
- Press sandwich by balancing a medium-sized pot on top. Let cook for 2-3 minutes, or until Taleggio shows the earliest signs of melting. Confidently slide spatula under sammy, and flip (onto a new pile of Mimolette) once you're sure that Mimolette is fully removed from the pan's surface. It should be golden-orange and crisped without being burnt.
- Repeat on second side. Remove once Taleggio is oozing onto pan. Let sit for 30-45 seconds before cutting with a serrated knife. DO NOT ruin your perfect sandwich by applying too much pressure: gently saw through the crunchy crisped cheese crust and let that knife do all the work.
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