I am a student that recently moved to a student apartment, I have been making grilled sandwiches and storing them in aluminium foil to eat at uni. However, this causes the sandwiches to steam themselves inside the aluminium foil and the bread becomes mushy. How can I prevent this? Is there any way to store it and be able to carry it in the backpack without it steaming itself?
Thanks!
No, you can't make a grilled sandwich, seal it and expect it to still be crispy later. You can reduce the mushiness quite a bit by letting the sandwich cool completely on a wire rack before you package it up. If you don't have a wire rack you can make a lattice out of chopsticks or skewers, the important thing is that the bottom of the sandwich can air cool.
If you cool your sandwich completely on a rack, as was suggested, it will help eliminate some of the sogginess problem.
I’d also take the extra measure of wrapping your sandwich (after it’s cooled completely) in parchment paper, or at least a paper towel. This will help a bit to wick away residual moisture and soak up some excess fat that may cause even more sogginess. That said, as the previous answerer stated, the only thing that’ll bring your sandwich back to crispness would be a re-heat.
The other answer would be to make a calzone instead of a grilled cheese. You can use pre-made pizza dough, even that “little doughboy” (you know who I mean) pressure packed pizza dough in a tube. It’s baked, not fried, so you’ll get something that has a longer crunch life, if you don’t use any very wet ingredients to stuff it.
Last suggestion: if you’ve got a toaster oven where you’re planning on lunching, assemble the sandwich but don’t cook it. Wait til you get to school, or work, or wherever, and grill the sammie on site!
