Grilled cheese sandwiches are the best, especially when the bread comes out brown and crispy and the cheese is melted and gooey. I was in the third grade when I attempted my first grilled cheese sandwich. I was using a cast iron skillet and I can still remember how the bread crisped up before the cheese melted. There were no microwaves back then or I might have taken an additional step and used one to try and melt the cheese. That wouldn’t have turned out well.
A few years later, when I was 13 or 14 years old, I realized what I’d been doing wrong. I was over to a friends house and out of the blue we had an unplanned grilled cheese sandwich marathon. There were three of us and we must have each eaten four or five sandwiches. And they were good. Observation was the key element in my grilled cheese sandwich education. As I watched them cook our sandwiches it finally dawned on me what I’d been doing wrong all these years. Everything. I was using cheese that didn’t melt easily. I wasn’t using enough butter. I had the heat turned up too high. I had the heat turned down too low. I didn’t use a lid.
Since then I’ve improved quite a bit. It’s simple and easy when you know how. Be observant.