You're having grilled cheese for dinner tonight. An ooey, gooey grilled cheese made on a chewy sourdough bread grilled to crunchy perfection, layered with melty sharp cheddar, salty crisp bacon, crisp green apple and a drizzle of sweet maple syrup.
See? I told you. You're having grilled cheese for dinner tonight.
At this point I think it's very, very important that I let you know I am 100% behind the original Wonderbread, plastic cheese, grilled cheese sandwich. It's a classic. I'm all for it.
But .... I'm a grown up now, so I also eat fancy grilled cheeses. Churched up, elegant mutations of the childhood classic that are better suited to my more refined adult palate. When it isn't busy with Sour Patch Kids.
To make the perfect grown up grilled cheese you just need a few tips on technique and ingredients.
THE 3 ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS FOR A GRILLED CHEESE
1. A grown up grilled cheese begins with the right bread. SOURDOUGH BREAD.
~ Sourdough bread is THE best bread for getting crispy on the outside while maintaining a perfect chewiness on the inside, PLUS it has flavour.
2. A grown up grilled cheese also needs the right cheese. SHARP CHEDDAR CHEESE.
~ Sharp Cheddar Cheese has good flavour but more importantly it's melty! It's melty!
3. A grown up grilled cheese also needs a frying fat. MAYONNAISE.
~ Mayonnaise is the grown up alternative to butter when making a grilled cheese but I'm going to tell you a secret. I prefer butter. Mayo spreads easier and really does help the bread get good and crispy but ... I prefer butter. Better flavour.
If you want to make your grilled cheese out of just those 3 ingredients; sourdough, cheddar & mayo/butter I'm O.K. with that. It's delicious. But if you want to make a truly grown up grilled cheese; the kind of grilled cheese that you could serve at your wedding to a member of the royal family then THIS is the way to go.
This is the recipe for Hamilton's famous Lumberjack grilled cheese invented by Gorilla Cheese.
THE BEST GRILLED CHEESE YOU'LL EVER EAT.
Ingredients
- Sourdough bread
- Sharp Cheddar Cheese shredded not sliced
- Mayo or butter
- ½ Granny Smith Apple sliced thin
- Bacon cooked crisp
- Maple Syrup
Instructions
- Butter (or mayo) both sides of all of your bread.
- Lightly fry one side of each slice of bread in butter over medium/low heat then remove from pan.
- Place a large handful of shredded cheese, slices of apple to cover the cheese, 2 strips of bacon and a big drizzle of maple syrup on the toasted side of a piece of bread. You want the ingredients to be sitting on the toasted side!
- Top with another slice of bread, toasted side down.
- Return the assembled sandwich to the frying pan with at LEAST 2 large tablespoons of butter over medium/low heat. Fry each side until golden.
I want to make sure you noticed the tips in there so I'm going to list them for you because I am a conscientious blogger who wants to ensure you have a pleasant grilled cheese experience. Plus I feel like my instructions are a bit muddled.
GRILLED CHEESE TIPS
- Shred your cheese - don't slice it
- Cook over medium/low heat. Low and slow please to prevent burning.
- Toast the *inside* of the bread as well as the outside. Also a good trick for quesadillas btw.
Serve with local craft beer and a kosher dill pickle.
Oh! And if you want to do the whole pickle skewered to the top thing like I do, you can get the sandwich paddle picks here. They're 6" so they're long enough to go right through the sandwich to keep it from toppling over.
You're an adult. You deserve this kind of a grilled cheese. The kind of grilled cheese that says, Hey! I'm a grown up. I use a rinse agent in my dishwasher.
You're going to say you like red onion on your grilled cheese. I know that. This just isn't the grilled cheese to do that with, so please don't. Red onion with mozzarella, fontina, a balsamic reduction and basil leaves? Go for it. Just don't add them to this particular Ultimate Grilled Cheese please.
Now. Someone pass the ketchup.
So I can throw it out the window.
amy in stl
Blech! Apple and maple syrup sound gross on grilled cheese. I'll tolerate apple on a ham and brie sandwich, but I will not spoil a perfectly good grilled cheese with sweet and fruity foods. Dis-gust-ing!
Julie
Don't knock it til you try it!
Amy in stl
Well I've had apple and cheddar before and I find that combination to be vile. I don't like maple syrup on anything but pancakes. Sweet and savory tastes do not go together for my palate. So I'll not be trying something so gross.
Alena
Amy,
You are my kind of a person. I could probably survive the apple (though I have never tried it) but I have never offended my mouth with anything where bacon is combined with maple syrup and I don't care what the rest of humankind loves and how many megabuckets of bacon/maple syrup ice cream were consumed last year. I have always cringed (long before I moved from Europe to Canada) at the sight of people having bacon (or sausages) with eggs, hash browns AND pancakes with maple syrup on the same plate. Totally GROSS!
I am never - and I mean NEVER - commit such a crime. As you said - Sweet and savoury shalt not mix!
Robin
Thanks a LOT! Now I am hungry and want one!! Especially want the bacon and the cheese and the bread, of course the bread. I LoVe good quality bread. My mom always made our bread, lucky us, now I just make sure I buy decent bread, too busy to make it and for the amount that my man goes through, I'd have to become a baker to keep up with his consumption.
I use Extra Old, majorly aged white cheddar and sun dried tomatoes for my grown up grilled cheese, never liked the plastic wrapped cheese product, I guess my taste buds were old before their time! Grilled cheese is definitely happening later today....
Mary W
Karen, your posts always stir up ideas - thanks.
Laurie
My first thought was... Hey, I've had this sandwich!! Gorilla Cheese all the way!
Monica
Can you taste the mayo? For real, no lies. If you can, it's a deal breaker for me.
Karen
No, you don't taste it at all. But honestly, I just put that in for the people who are interested in it. There's NO need to use mayo if you don't want. Butter actually tastes better. Mayo just spreads easier and make a nice even browning. ~ karen!
Alena
I have to disagree with Karen here. I do taste the mayo and I find it really repulsive. But then Hellman's mayo is disgusting on its own as I am concerned. But I saw a commercial (I think) that was suggesting mayo instead of butter so I tried it twice and I hated it both time so I won't be making it again. Butter is butter.
But try it - my taste buds may feel differently than mine.
Monica
Hmm, maybe I'll give it a miss and stick with butter. Mayo is just my Brussels sprout. You can't make it good for me no matter what you do to it. Thanks for the warning!
jaine kunst
OMG!!! All that yummy, sweet, cheesy goodness and now that my proving cloth has arrived I can eat it on my homemade bread. But EXTRA sharp cheddar for me, please. Can't wait to taste it tonight, but your photo looks so awesome that I'm drooling already!
Jenifer
On my way to the store to get the sourdough....BRB
Sabina
Sooo when I told the BF I would make him a nice dinner while he mowed the lawn later I had no idea what I would be making...and now I do! Not difficult nor time consuming and served with craft beer - a perfect recipe, thank you Karen!
Jen Daily
When you have a chance, look up the Pioneer Woman's "best grilled cheese" Nothing like the one you posted --- I am planning on making grilled cheeses on Friday night for dinner--- looking forward to seeing which ones my big boys prefer!
Happy HUMP day!
Amy
Not red onion - caramelized onions, with buttermilk cheddar cheese......
Chris White
I think I will try this for lunch..... And then try it again for supper. Do I have enough cheese to give it a go for breakfast??? Thanks Karen for leading me astray once again!
Carrie Miller
I learned the mayo trick a few years ago, and have often been a fan of sourdough and bacon with the grilled cheese. But apples and mayo, can't wait to try that.
With the mayo, I like the way it gives an extra crispy layer on the bread, and by frying in butter, you still get the butter flavor that is SOOO good.
Jenny W
Yup, definitly supper tonight, with a steaming bowl of Tomato Basil soup. It should hit all of the right spots after building an ark all day - it's a little damp here on the East Coast!
Brenda
omg - I have some of those pickle picks ...
OK ... maple syrup, mayo, pickles & ketchup, umMmm ... I get the cheese, apple, bacon, maple syrup ... butter - yup I'm still in ... and I get the pickles, ketchup, cheese, bacon, mayo ... SO this sounds like grilled cheese - two kinds (dessert and dinner versions but not necessarily in that order) ... OK - I do - I get it. I'm totally in. AND toasting both sides - now that's just totally over indulgent ... I am SOoOOOo in ... le sigh ;)
Inlarkspur
Omg, people have thought me craZy to use mayo rather than butter.....
Toasting on both sides? Doesn't it prevent the gooeyness from seeping into the bread, or really scratch the roof of your mouth??
Tell me, have you ever tried peanut butter and tomato sandwiches? Now that's a summer, first tomato (hot off the vine) with fresh SKIPPY that is to die for.
Jeez, I put my tomato starts out in the garden last weekend and not a single tomato yet!!!!!
Mark
Hope you have a jar of Skippy saved because it's been discontinued in Canada (and the US version has more sugar so doesn't taste the same)... :(
Mary W
Love peanut butter and banana sandwiches, adore tomato and Hellmann's mayo sandwiches (Kraft just won't work) and think leftover turkey dressing with cranberry sauce sandwiches are heaven. I've eaten tons of fried (w/butter) pb&j sandwiches but have never mixed peanut butter with tomato. But since mine all sound strange, I'll give yours a try just because I don't want to die before tasting something that I may ultimately love. I also wonder why people don't mix peanut butter with cream cheese for a type of cheesecakey sandwich. (I need to try it myself.)
Inlarkspur
Cream cheese and pb are great together. On a graham cracker and you can pretend it's a pb cheese cake!!
Mary W
Inlarkspur, I love your idea. Such a simple way to test and it does sound good. Now I'm off to find my Ritz!
Tina
I just climbed into bed. And, as always, I saw on Facebook that you had a new blog out so I saved it, I relished the idea of reading it when I was tucked up. And damn it! Now I want to get up and make a sandwich! This looks SO good, it'll certainly be my lunch tomorrow, but sadly on a light rye. I have no sourdough, at the moment. :(
Carolyn
You almost lost me with mayo, but with butter as an alternative, I'm baassck.
Karen
You know what? You can't even taste the mayo. At all. It just helps make the bread evenly crispy and it spreads easily. But the butter gives WAY better flavour. ~ karen!
Audrey
How about the tangy taste of ..... Miracle Whip?
lisa
Just made this (no apple) with Miracle Whip. Can't say I was a fan. Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained.
Karen
O.K., well, then you didn't make it, lol. You made something very different. ~ karen!
lisa
Audrey asked! Also I had no apples.
Karen
Oh that silly Audrey. ~ karen!
SuzyMcQ
Agreed, Carolyn. Currently, though, I use olive oil.
Carolyn
Yeah...I'm sure it's great but I have mental issues with mayo (and ketchup). I call them my sauce issues. Then I have to explain how I like tomatoes and spaghetti sauce and bbq sauce.
Kennedy
Yes - you nailed it. Those photos - damn.
We've made all kinds of different grill cheese combos over the years and I love an apple and cheese combo. My favourite is the apple and sharp cheese with sourdough slowly crisped over the charcoal BBQ. I know it sounds weird and impossible - but it's actually quite amazing. I even add BBQ sauce to the outside of mine.
I love the freak flying Canadian maple syrup flag on this - I have international friends that freak over the maple syrup on bacon and sausage and think it's the weirdest thing. I wonder if they would ever get over it being on a grilled cheese.
Mark
Your photos are so fantastic that I can almost smell it!
Mary W
I guess the mouth and brain are directly connected to the eyes since I can taste it and smell it. But I do have a wicked imagination and glad I'm not the only one. Thanks.
Paula
Okay, I am officially drooling.
Karen
Well I'd wonder about your sanity if you weren't. ~ karen!