Classic Grilled Cheese

Sometimes it's the simple things, done to perfection, that give us the most pleasure. A grilled cheese sandwich is one of those things. So let's make it a double shall we?

We'll start with four pieces of white bread. The sliced "old-fashioned" sort works excellent, a little thicker, and a little drier than a standard loaf, which will make for great texture when it is done. Lighter and crispier rather than pasty and flimsy. "Day old" bread works great too, being a bit dried out.

Cheese. Nothing more classic than yellow American cheese of course, but Double Gloucester is a similar but tasty alternative.The choice is yours of course. What you should do though, is get it fresh sliced from your local deli rather than using the more plastic-like plastic-wrapped slices in the cooler section. Ask them to slice it extra thick. American cheese is a rather soft cheese which tends to break easily when trying to pull a slice off, especially when sliced thin. Thick slices will help make it easier to handle, and perfect for sandwiches. Slap down a nice thick slab onto two of your four slices of bread, or perhaps two slices if you are stuck with thinner sliced or packaged cheese. Top with the other slices of bread, so that you now have two assembled  sandwiches.

Put a frying pan on the burner and turn on the heat very low. Melt about a tablespoon of butter in the pan. While the butter is melting there, smear the topside of your two sandwiches with softened butter completely, but just a thin coating.

When the butter in the pan is melted, go ahead and lay your sandwiches in, dry side down. The key here is to get just the right temperature in the pan, and maintain that temp. Most folks make the mistake of using too much heat and cooking the sandwich too fast. Low and slow is how to do it best. Just a very little bit of bubbling and crackling as the bread soaks up the melted butter in the pan. Watch the edges of the bread and the color of the butter in the pan, use your sense of smell to help guide you to the perfect crispy golden-brown crust, the color of caramel. Use a slotted spatula to so that you can pick up the sandwich out of the pan and have a look at the color. If it's not quite there yet, lay it back in. When it's perfect, go ahead and flip to do the same to the other side, already lightly buttered.

Cooked slowly, the outside of the sandwich will have the perfect, crispy, deep golden crust. Buttery but not greasy. While inside, that rich golden cheese has melted into a gooey sauce poached in fluffy bread. That contrast is why a drier, thicker, less doughy bread works best.

Now let's go ahead and make a meal out of it shall we? A basic tossed salad, cool green and leafy on one side. And on the other, the most classic accessory to a grilled cheese, Campbell's tomato soup. Simplicity, perfect for dipping and slurping. Of course, you could go with a more hearty, complex, tomato soup, but there is nothing more classic than that red and white can of simple goodness we all grew up with.

Here is your simple shopping list:

Bread, cheese, butter

Can of tomato soup.

Lettuce, cucumber, tomato, dressing. (Avoid a thick creamy dressing, to keep the contrast of your meal.)