Grilled cheese can include add-ins. Restaurants know this. People cooking at home know this. They can also just have the simplest of ingredients. I make them this way too. I know this will be downvoted because there is a contingent in this subreddit that wants to very narrowly define what grilled cheese is in order to exclude a more expansive group of people who know and accept that grilled cheese can be many things… not just cheese, bread, and 'spread'. That is the base. To say that grilled cheese must be just those things is an affront to many a grilled cheese fan.
by Fun-Treacle-2916
7 Comments
Thats a melt
You’re right!
Enough about this nonsense of add ins. Let us focus on the important issue. Do you consider your cut a modified horizontal or a modified diagonal? And what was the effect on the taste of the cheese?
Compromise
“To say that grilled cheese must be just those things is an affront to many a grilled cheese fan.”
Yeah no.. that’s just a melt fan. Ya’ll losing the plot.
I’m open to a looser interpretation of “grilled cheese” in every day use, but for this sub in particular the line kinda has to be firm otherwise this sub would quickly devolve into a general “any warm sandwich with cheese on it” type affair. Like I personally think adding diced tomatoes or onions, or Jalepeno slices, or even little bits or meat should still be fine, but if you allow that how do you decide when you’ve crossed the line from grilled cheese with tomato to tomato melt? My personal definition has always been: if the cheese is the primary ingredient, primary flavor, and primary texture then you can call it a grilled cheese. If you’ve added so much stuff to it that the cheese is somewhere in the background or even just “tied” for 1st place in the sandwich then you’ve made a melt. But like I said, that’s kinda impossible to litigate.
I also think using restaurants as an example is pretty flawed. Almost every fancy “grilled cheese” I’ve ever gotten or seen from a restaurant is truly, very clearly, a melt. Like “short rib grilled cheese” is pretty common around me and those are absolutely not a grilled cheese. If you changed the bread for a bun you’d have a whole ass burger; the cheese is merely a secondary or even tertiary ingredient at that point. They call it a “grilled cheese” because it sounds cooler than “melt” or “sandwich”, and I assume especially because upscale casual is popular and pretending your sandwich is a modern upscale take on a comfort classic allows you to tack a couple bucks on the price tag. Just because the restaurant down the street threw some extra cheese on a cuban and is calling it a “grilled cheese” doesn’t suddenly make it one.
Why does it look like the profile photo of the sub?😂