Grilled Cheese: Round 2 - The Iron Skillet

My grilled cheese adventure turned another page this weekend with the introduction of the long-awaited (by me) iron skillet.

A man and his skillet.

The iron skillet may look brand new, but don’t be fooled. I bought it over a year ago thinking my wife would love to have a hardy new pan. You would have thought by her reaction to this thoughtful, unexpected gift that pans and skillets are mortal enemies, and we, as by-standing chefs must choose a side. My wife never once used the iron skillet, calling it unprintable names, claiming it is dirty. All the while, I have never wanted to cook with something more.

My wife also says that it will absorb flavors as you cook, so everything would end up tasting like everything else. If this is true, it is a legitimate concern. You don’t want to be making pancakes that taste like fried onions. For this reason, the great grilled cheese adventure is a perfect fit for the iron skillet.

Mmm.  Grilled excellence.

The first attempt with it led to mixed results. It may lend itself to picturesque cooking, but it heats up really fast and I burned my second sandwich.

Study this picture.  There will be a test later.

As you can see, the two sandwiches are very different. In this process, part of me wants to take a gradual, organic exploration of what is out there, and part of me wants to go crazy and try wild things. I did a little of both.

The top sandwich here is simple American cheese on potato bread. Last week, I discovered that whole wheat bread is not suitable for grilled cheeses. It’s too hearty and substantial. I looked online for the best grilled cheese sandwiches and found recipes that call for “quality potato bread.” This is Martin’s Potato Bread and it makes a world of difference. This was a much better Grilled Cheese sandwich. (Unfortunately, the potato bread replaced the whole wheat bread on the grocery list and today’s lunch of Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich took a hit. It’s going to be a long week of lunches.)

 The bottom half of the picture is a blackened sandwich of American cheese on Pan de Leche, or milk bread, which my wife bought off the reduced rack. The price was right. We’ve toasted this bread up to go with pasta dinners and it really is delicious. As a grilled cheese it did alright. It was a bit sweet and almost chewy. Its downfall was user-error as it bore the brunt of my skillet inexperience. For one thing, it cooked too fast for the cheese to get good and melty.

Another problem though wasn’t with the skillet at all, but that it did toast evenly. I should have expected this though as it isn’t cut into flat slices. I don’t want one mishap to rule all rolls and buns out altogether, but it is something that I’ll need to figure out a solution to.

Overall, not a bad effort, but as you see in the picture, I was generous with the ketchup. As my wife says, a great grilled cheese sandwich won’t need any help.