Original American Grilled Cheese

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.  When you sing you begin with Do, Re, Mi, when you eat you begin with American Grilled Cheese! :-)  As previously mentioned, the very first grilled cheese sandwich I came to know and love was the classic white bread with American cheese.  Incidentally this was also the first sandwich listed in GGC (this makes sense considering this is the sandwich most people think of when the think of a grilled cheese).  Although this has been a tried and true favorite for years, in the spirit of accurately and completely following GGC, this was a crucial first step.  Shall we begin?

Step one was, of course, assembling the necessary ingredients.  You'll note GGC, butter, bread and American cheese of two varieties (yellow and white), and tomato soup.  The latter was briefly a point of concern for me considering I have always been able to enjoy just the sandwich sans any unnecessary flavor detractors (i.e. soup).  Colin was the one who requested tomato soup with our sandwiches and I wasn't a fan of the idea until I remembered that this is such a popular combination with the general public I thought it only fair to give it a try (you know, for the sake of research).

Each sandwich consists of two slices of yellow or white American cheese sandwiched between two slices of bread.  I had left the butter out all day to soften it up as GGC points out that it's easier to get an even spread when the butter is soft.  Right they were!  My lifelong problem of tearing the bread apart before it even hits the pan is officially tackled!

Now the sandwiches were primed and ready to go.  The non-stick pan was not greased and the sandwiches were sufficiently buttered.  I plopped the first sandwich in the pan and immediately made use of another GGC tip: covering the sandwich while it cooks.  This helps to trap in the heat and melt the cheese.

Cooking on my gas stove is something that has been a struggle for me from day 1.  It just gets so hot so quickly!  GGC suggests cooking most sandwiches on medium-high.  For my first sandwich this was fine considering the pan was still warming up, but by the fourth it was much too hot!  By that point I was toasting the bread before the cheese even had a chance to melt.  I turned the heat down and have resolved to try a lower heat next week-- I'd rather have to wait longer for the sandwich to cook than rush it and be met with burned bread and cold cheese.

I started off with a white American cheese sandwich:

Which was soon joined by its yellow counterpart (as promised, shot from overhead with full view of the official grilled cheese plates for perspective):

Now on to the most important part: the taste review!

White Cheese: For a long time I didn't even know that white American cheese existed.  I was introduced to this foreign concept in college and initially thought it tasted basically the same as yellow.  This sandwich making session has proven that theory wrong.  The white American cheese is much creamier and almost sweet compared to the yellow.  It tasted fattier and didn't have the sharpness that I look for in American cheese (not as sharp as a cheddar, but not as mild as a mozzarella).  It was almost as if the creamy flavors overpowered the rest of the sandwich, leaving me wanting a more evenly represented bread and cheese combination.  Colin (our resident dip the sandwich in the soup tester) concurred on the creamier taste and said that the white cheese did not go as well with the soup as the yellow.  He wondered if some of the creaminess factor may be related to the amount of butter on the bread.  This is a distinct possibility as his white American sandwich was the first one I buttered and early on I was quite liberal with the amount of butter used.  Duly noted for future sandwiches.

Yellow Cheese: It's hard to say anything negative about a taste that is such a staple in my diet.  The yellow American had just the right amount of sharpness without overpowering the bread, creating the perfect balance of grilled cheese deliciousness!  No single element stood out above the rest, and that's just how a traditional grilled cheese should be (IMO).  Colin noted that the sandwich went well with the soup (again, perhaps because this is such a beloved combination).  All in all it was clear that we both preferred the yellow American to the white.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Yellow American Cheese	White American Cheese
Gooey-ness:	2.5	3
Aroma:	3	2
Appearance:	Perfectly charred, neat and ready to eat!
Taste:	A+	B

Gooey Scale: 1 = still cold/hard, 2 = slightly melted but still firm, 3 = melted evenly, 4 = melted and slightly runny (starting to get those cheese strings between your sandwich and your mouth when you take a bite), 5 = runny, 6 = sloppy mess!

Aroma Scale: 1 = can’t smell a thing, 2 = tender waft, 3 = makes your stomach growl, 4 = strong scent, 5 = overpoweringly pungent.

All in all a successful week 1!  And even though I didn't find a way to blend in my vanilla milkshake flavor with the sandwich, I did manage to capture a vanilla milkshake taste after the fact ;-)

Coming Up Next Week: Cheesy Gashouse Egg Sandwich