Published March 1, 1998.
Butter the bread rather than the skillet, grate the cheese, and cook over low heat for sandwiches with a lacy-crisp exterior and a tender, oozing interior.
Rarely are grilled cheese sandwiches as good as they could be. The skillet's too hot, the butter is cold, and the cheese is difficult to slice, especially when the block has been whittle down to a nub.
Grilled cheese sandwiches are the kind of thing that most everybody makes--perhaps more or less depending on whether you have young children and then on how many you have. Simple as they are, though, we found we had lots of questions to answer if we wanted to come up with a recipe for a really good grilled cheese sandwich every time.
Evenly coating the bread (not the pan) with butter ensures an evenly golden product; brushing melted butter on the bread really does the job. As for when to turn the sandwich, the longer you take, the more developed and crispy the exterior will be; low to medium-low heat is what's wanted. Tradition calls for thinly sliced cheese to ensure even melting. But cutting uniformly thin slices of cheese from a block is no easy task; we found that grating got us to the same destination--an even layer of cheese on the bread--without the aggravation.
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