Grilled Cheese
633kcal24.1g protein44.9g fat32.6g carbs~$1.55/ serving*Estimates computed from the ingredient list; cost uses average US supermarket prices. Not a substitute for packaging measurements or your receipt.
Contains gluten, dairy · sometimes contains soy — check the label · only in an optional ingredient: egg
Restrictions
Containsgluten · dairyIt is in an ingredient you cannot leave out.
Sometimes contains — check the labelsoy (Mayonnaise)Some brands have it, some do not. The recipe cannot tell, so this is the one you check yourself.
Only if you add itegg (Mayonnaise)Leave that ingredient out and the dish does not have it.
Diets
VegetarianPescatarianNo porkNo alcohol
Worked out from the ingredient list. It knows nothing about brands, shared equipment or cross contamination, and it is not a certification — if you have an allergy, you still have to read the label.
Ingredients
Servings:
| 4 slice |  bread (white sandwich or sourdough, cut 1.5 cm thick) |
| 1 cup |  cheese (cheddar, grated) |
| ½ cup |  cheese (processed American, grated, for melt) |
| 3 tbsp |  butter (softened) |
Optional
Not counted above. The dish works without them.
| 2 tbsp |  mayonnaise (in place of butter on the outside) |
| 1 tsp |  mustard (Dijon, a thin smear inside) |
| ½ cup |  cheese (gruyère, grated, for part of the cheddar) |
| 1 unit |  tomato (sliced thin and salted) |
| 1 unit |  onion (thinly sliced, softened first) |
Steps
- Grate4 mincoarse holes, cheeses mixed togethercheddar + American cheese grated and tossed together. Grating is the whole difference between a sandwich that melts through and one with a solid slab in the middle: more surface area means faster, more even melting, and the two cheeses do different jobs — American carries emulsifying salts that keep the melt smooth, cheddar carries the flavour
- Season3 minbutter softened to spreadable, applied to the outer faces onlybutter spread to the very edges of the outside faces (+ mustard smeared on the inner faces). Cold butter tears soft bread and lands in clumps that brown unevenly; if it is not soft, use mayonnaise instead, which spreads on cold bread and browns nearly as well. Edge to edge matters — an unbuttered corner stays pale and chewy
- Saute5 minmedium-LOW, sandwich assembled in the pan, lid on for the first 3 minutessandwich cooked slowly, covered at first (+ tomato, + onion). The lid traps steam and drives heat into the middle, which is what melts the cheese before the outside is done. This is the step people get wrong: on high heat the bread is dark in ninety seconds and the cheese is still cold, and there is no way back from that because the outside cannot take any more time
- Toast3 minlid off, turned once, pressed lightly, until deep golden both sidesturned and finished uncovered until the second face is browned and the cheese visibly runs at the edges. Lid off now so the crust dries and crisps rather than steaming. Press gently with a spatula — enough to keep contact, not enough to squeeze the cheese out
- Rest2 minon a rack, 1-2 minutes, then cut on the diagonalbriefly on a rack, never a plate. Molten cheese runs straight out of a sandwich cut immediately, and two minutes lets it set enough to stay put. A rack keeps steam from softening the underside — the same crust you just spent five minutes building goes limp in under a minute on a flat plate