Next Level Grilled Cheese

-Jesse Sutton----   Ok, y'all, I was listening to NPR the other day, and I can't remember if it was The Splendid Table (ok show, bad name), or Milk Street Radio (great show, terrible name), and I heard some guest talking about a grilled cheese trick he had, and I just had to try it.  I don't remember the guest's name (hell, I didn't even remember what show it was), I don't remember a lot about the recipe he made, what I really remember was one specific technique.  This madman made grilled cheese sandwiches with cheese on the outside, too.  The technique is based on the Italian snack the frico, or pan-toasted cheese crisp.

The technique is pretty simple, but took me a few tries to get right.

Cheeses used: Kraft shredded parmesan (for attempt one), Parmigiano Reggiano (for attempt two), and bag 'Mexican blend' (I had it left over from Mexican pizza night, it's a blend of the three classic Mexican cheeses, Cheddar [England], Colby [Wisconsin], and Monterrey Jack [California]).  Although I'm pretty sure this cheese must have come from a massive industrial site in Illinois.

Bread used: Brioche from Whole Foods.  It's pretty alright.  Cur it about 3/4 of an inch thick.

Other ingredients: butter, mayo (didn't work), and granulated garlic  (optional).

The Technique: Heat two teflon skillets (10" minimum).  (You can do it in one skillet, but it doubles how long the sandwich takes, and you can really only make one at a time, so if you're feeding four people, you'll be making sandwiches for 45 minutes.)  Don't let them get too hot, fricos need to cook slowly.  Blast them with a little pan spray.  Using the small shred holes on a box grater, shred parmesan into the pan.  You need a thicker layer than you think, don't try to make it too lacy.  You want like 3mm of cheese, minimum.  Grate the cheese in a rough circle about an inch and a half larger than the bread you're using.  Then, put a buttered slice of bread, butter-side down, directly into the cheese.  Top the bread with whatever cheese you're filling your sandwich with (and feel free to use better cheese than I did, but do know that shredded cheese kinda melts better, especially in this sandwich, where the heat is so low).  Then, let it toast, low and slow.  You're going to want to keep your flame very, very low.  You don't want to burn the parmesan before the bread is crisp (this is why it takes forever.)

Once you have all that assembled, do the same thing in the second pan.  Then, watch the first half to see when it's done.  The cheese will turn into golden-brown lace, and the bread underneath will toast to a medium brown.  Gently slice a rubber spat under the edge to check it.  It's pliable when it's hot, so it won't shatter.  Don't wait for it to crisp in the pan, it's never gonna happen.  The parm has to cool a little before the cracker crust forms.  So when it's done, invert it onto the other half.  It should look like this.

Look at that monstrosity!  Once it's out of the pan, the frico-crust will become brittle and rigid, pretty fast.  Then, you let the other side go till done, too.  When you pull it from the pan, let it rest so the most recently-cooked side is up, so it can crisp too.

To cut, I found that a quick, downward stroke from a regular chef knife was best.  Serrated bread knives stick in the frico in a weird way.  Bonus points if all the lace on the edges of the sandwich stays intact.  The more, the better, anyway.

Technical notes: The first one I did was with bag parm.  It cooked up very, very different.  It was by no means bad, just different.  Not as delicate.  It was, however, easier to crisp up.  It's down to whether you'd rather have a better sandwich, or an easier sandwich.  When I switched to real parm, it took me a couple of tries to get the amount of cheese and pan temp right.  (The answer is lower heat than you think, and more cheese than you think.)  Also, I tried the trick where you use mayonnaise instead of butter on the outside.  It's not a bad technique, but it wasn't well-suited to this technique.  The mayo made soft spots in the frico, and got too dark before the frico was done cooking.

The Garlic Bread Trick: My friend Chanda was over when we were doing this, and she had suggested a grilled cheese on garlic bread.  Since I was cooking grilled cheese after grilled cheese, one after another, I decided that might be a fun diversion.  I was super hack about it, and just dusted the filling of the sandwich with a little granulated garlic (cook slang: grangar) on the last sandwich, and it was great.  A little undignified, perhaps, but certainly delicious.  

Was it worth it?:  Kinda.  The consensus was that the frico was a fun novelty, but that there was no substitute for the crackly toasted-bread exterior of a truly perfect grilled cheese.  I could see a diner gaining a cult following for having a cheese sandwich like this on the menu, and it would be a great thing for a fine dining restaurant to send out to VIP's (with some fancy-ass cheese like Sottocenere in there), but it's not going to take over.  Even if it was as fast as a regular grilled cheese, it's not gonna take down the king.  But super fun to try, and don't they look cool?

Chanda and I have other grilled cheese tricks coming, so stay tuned.

-JS