The Grilled Cheese Taste-Off

Gooey goodness.

This weekend, my wife and I played host to a couple of her old college roommates.  I seized the opportunity by forcing them to participate in the first grilled cheese taste-off of the year.  A taste-off is a great way to experiment and test out grilled cheeses on my pathway to perfecting the grilled cheese sandwich.  Here's a little starter video:

What that video lacks in substance, it more than makes up for in charm. *emoticon smile!*

I was surprised with the results, both in my favorite and in how varied the opinions were. Each sandwich was rated 1 through 10 in four categories, overall taste, presentation, bread, and cheese.  Here is a rundown of each sandwich and how they fared.

Four sandwiches, ready to be judged.

Grilled Salt & Pepper Cheese

 This grilled cheese is simple American cheese on the whitest white bread imaginable with a bunch of salt and pepper added to it.  The results were mixed.  Three out of four judges rated this the worst of the bunch, but the fourth judge considered it the favorite due to its "classic" nature.  Speaking as one of the judges, this was terrible.  There was way too much salt and I was left with a dry mouth for hours after this competition.  Cheese, I'm learning, has some salt to it, but I believe this sandwich bore the blame for my dry mouth.

The Cinnamon Sugar Grilled Cheese

 This is the same concept as the salt and pepper sandwich, just with cinnamon sugar instead of salt and pepper.  I also covered the top of the sandwich itself with a light cover of cinnamon sugar as a final step.  I was excited about this one as my wife usually puts cinnamon on her grilled cheeses, a trick she learned from her grandmother.  Speaking for myself, this was an excellent sandwich despite the fact that it rated last by three of the four judges, despite strong numbers and good comments from all.  If anything, it was hurt by the other sandwiches as it was definitely the only sweet option available.  Don't be fooled by the numbers... it was good sandwich.

The Double-Stacked, Double-Stuffed Cheesey Grilled Cheese

 So this is a big sandwich with big ambitions.  It has plain white bread on the outside, with the inside being layered like this: 1 American Cheese, 1 Muenster Cheese, 1 American Cheese, 1 separately grilled slice of Potato Bread, 1 Muenster Cheese, 1 Cheddar Cheese, 1 Muenster Cheese.  It was pretty good, and a lot of fun to make.  That being said, I can't help but blame it for the constipation that followed me for the rest of the day.  The judges all agreed that it was not their favorite, but it did rate as the favorite if you only look at the numbers.  This is because in my scoring system, presentation was equally waited with taste, which you have to admit, this was pretty impressive looking.  



Our new camera helps its on-line presentation.



Cheddar on Rye

I have to give credit to my wife's aunt for this sandwich.  I have been wanting to try it since she mentioned it was her favorite, and... oh my god, it was so good!  I would never have thought to use rye bread for any sandwich before this Perfect Grilled Cheese Adventure began, but now I want to try it for all my sandwiches.  It sounds totally gross but I can't wait for tomorrow's return to work with a Peanut Butter and Jelly on rye.  Three out of four judges rated this very highly, even though it wasn't much to look at.  The only complaint was the two pieces of cheese didn't melt together very well, which was kind of weird, but that is cooking error and only makes me wonder how good this sandwich could be.

The simplicity of this sandwich leads me to think that the best Grilled Cheese will be the easiest to make, cheese, bread, butter, heat.  None of these sandwiches though had any crunch to them, which I hope to add in soon. 

All in all, it was a fun event with pretty tasty results.