Secrets for Making the Absolutely Best Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwich

You might think there's nothing to making a grilled cheese sandwich, but there are a couple of little known tips that will make your grilled cheese sandwich the absolute best.

First, if you're looking to create the best, you need to realize that every part of the sandwich needs to be carefully considered. If you think you can just slap a couple of slices of American cheese on any available bread, you might as well stop reading right now. But if you're ready to give your taste buds a real treat-read on.

Cheese. The kind of cheese you use is important. That ultra-sharp, 5-year-old cheddar that tastes so good when eaten alone will become a grainy undesirable texture when melted. So, if you're going to use cheddar, go for something that's not real hard. You can still use a "very sharp" cheddar, but check by feeling it that it's not too hard.

We're going for a top drawer grilled cheese here, so you'll want to use more than one cheese. I recommend using one cheese that's on the soft side and one that's a little harder. Something like a sharp cheddar along with something soft like Brick or Monterey Jack is a perfect combination. Sharp and Swiss also make a good combination, as does a good flavorful Swiss with Brick.

Bread. Follow your personal taste here, but if you're looking for a really flavorful sandwich, you're better off with something darker like whole wheat or rye.

Butter. If you want a top notch shelf grilled cheese you need to use butter. The unsalted kind is better, healthier and sweeter.

Preparation. Here's the best kept grilled cheese secret in the world-don't butter the bread. Instead melt a chunk of butter in a heavy skillet. Use cast iron if you have it. The point is that the heavier the skillet the more evenly the heat gets distributed. Turn on a medium fire, melt the butter, and put the sandwich in the skillet. By putting the butter in the skillet you are assuring that the bread gets a heavenly, even coating of butter. Give it a couple minutes and then, with a spatula, lift out the sandwich and put another chunk of butter in the skillet to melt. Turn the sandwich over and return it to the skillet. If you're like me and don't want to go thin on the cheese, you'll want to have a glass cover for the skillet. If you have one, put it on to help the cheese melt. Check the sandwich every couple minutes until the bread is browned the way you like it. It's perfectly ok to turn the sandwich a couple of times to perfect the browning. If the bread gets to the brown you like and you can tell the cheese needs to melt a little more, just turn off the heat and leave it sit a couple more minutes with the lid on. The cheese will melt and the bread won't burn.

That's it. Some people recommend cutting grilled cheese in a particular way, but if you have followed these directions it won't matter at all. You can even skip cutting all together if you're in that kind of mood. Bon apetit.