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Maybe it's called something else, but to me a grilled cheese sandwich with extra stuff in it is an "ultimate". The extra stuff I'm referring to is generally tomato, onion (thin sliced raw or grilled) and bacon (already cooked).

The problem I'd like to correct is that often the cheese has difficulty fusing the sandwich together because it doesn't stick well to the other ingredients. I've tried a few different placements of the ingredients but they all usually end with on slice of bread not really "attached" the way a proper grilled cheese should be. For example: Bread, Cheese, Other, More Cheese, Bread : this tend to give me two separate slices of bread with cheese and some ingredients in the cheese.

Is there any special technique to keeping this thing together as one piece?

Aaronut
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Ryan Elkins
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    In my book, it's not a grilled cheese sandwich if it has tomato, onion, and bacon in it. That makes it a grilled tomato, onion, bacon, and cheese sandwich. – Bob Dec 01 '10 at 14:19
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    I'm with @Bob: a grilled cheese sandwich consists of bread, cheese, and butter, period. An *ultimate* grilled cheese sandwich consists of the same ingredients, just with more cheese. :) – Marti Dec 01 '10 at 14:46
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    You're all wrong. An ultimate grilled cheese sandwich is bread, butter, cheese, *and bacon*. – Aaronut Dec 01 '10 at 15:11
  • @Aaronut: nope, that's a bacon melt. Or a BLT with cheese, hold the LT. :P – Marti Dec 01 '10 at 19:59
  • @Marti: Sure, and for my next meal I'll be having a bacon double cheeseburger, hold the bacon, patties, cheese, and bun. I reject your strange and frightening definition of a bacon melt, a dish which God has commanded is to be made with a foundational layer of deli meat, mayonnaise, and either Swiss or American cheese. – Aaronut Dec 01 '10 at 21:15
  • Grilled cheese should always have raw onions in it. Having said that, try this - salami, mozzarella and spread one interior with garlic puree the other with tomato paste, bit of oregano. – Orbling Dec 01 '10 at 21:39
  • @Orb: That is so far away from being grilled cheese that it makes me want to swim in a big vat of melted cheddar just to forget that I ever heard about it. – Aaronut Dec 02 '10 at 03:02
  • @Aaronut: I did not refer to it as grilled cheese, just something to try. ;-) – Orbling Dec 02 '10 at 12:00
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    This reminds me of Terry Pratchett and his talk of the BACON,lettuce and tomato sandwich vs. the LETTUCE TOMATO and bacon sandwich his wife has approved. – Chris Cudmore Jun 25 '12 at 18:00

4 Answers4

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Ignore the purists. If it's got cheese in it, and you're grilling it, it's grilled cheese.

The problem is this: your cold ingredients are keeping the cheese from properly melting through. The cheese is what binds the whole thing together. If there is not enough cheese, or if the cheese hasn't transitioned completely to gooey deliciousness, the sandwich is going to fall apart.

The solution is to heat your cold ingredients (at least to near room temp), and to cook the grilled cheese longer, at a lower temperature, so the heat has time to penetrate before the bread gets overcooked.

Satanicpuppy
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    I prefer this definition of grilled cheese, but somehow I think this could become a holy war if it is all about the definition. – justkt Dec 01 '10 at 15:09
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    @justkt: That's cool. God is on my side in this. – Satanicpuppy Dec 01 '10 at 15:37
  • This analysis makes sense to me; as I mentioned in another thread about grilled cheese I might also try heating the inside of the bread in the pan first to help facilitate the cheese melting. But I would think heating the other ingredients should do it - the times I add tomato, I also add bacon (which is of course quite hot), so I haven't encountered this issue too often. – stephennmcdonald Dec 01 '10 at 15:53
  • Holy war schmoly war, if you put tomato in my grilled cheese sandwich, I'm gonna hurt you. Ruining a perfectly good sandwich that way ought to be illegal. ]:) – Marti Dec 01 '10 at 20:04
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What if you grate the cheese and mix the (chopped) bacon and onions into it before putting it on the bread? Then you would have melted cheese with little pockets of deliciousness.

Mrs. Garden
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With marmite underneath the cheese. Pepper and a smear of humous added post grilling.

Ross Holloway
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Change up your approach to the grilling: get a hobo iron and make your grilled cheese that way. With a hearty bread bread, you'll be able to put anything you want in there and with enough spinning it will all settles into a beautiful nest of cheesy goodness.

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Community
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mfg
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  • These things are awesome, but how do you heat one inside? – justkt Dec 01 '10 at 21:03
  • @justkt unscrew the poles, drop the cast iron part into the oven on broil, or maybe just 550? I am guessing with the oven temp, since a campfire is around 1000 degrees F; but direct heat from the broiler might help speed up the cooking. – mfg Dec 01 '10 at 21:08
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    I'm surprised this did not come up more readily. In the UK, a grilled (or we would say toasted) cheese sandwich is almost always sealed, made in a special "toastie" maker. Like the above, but electrically heated like the grills you get. – Orbling Dec 01 '10 at 21:37
  • I've never heard of one of those. We have Forman and panini grills, but these cast iron sealed griddles are typically used over a campfire and filled with anything a good 'toastie' could hold. I'd love to find an electric one if it had similar functionality. – mfg Dec 01 '10 at 21:58
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    they used to be popular in the 90's in the US, before the Foreman Grill hit the market. They were usually sold as a [sandiwch maker](http://www.amazon.com/Maxi-Matic-ESM-9002K-Cuisine-Sandwich-Non-Stick/dp/B0006A305Q/) (linked for the example, not because I know that one's a particularly good model) – Joe Dec 02 '10 at 14:33