Woah! Is that a grilled cheese deluxe from cheezers? Yes it is. *munching* aw how did you mange this? I bought it, with money. niiice hey you know what would go good with these sandwhiches? funny internet videos! ooo that's kinda meta. Hey whats up guys welcome back to binging with banish. where this week, I'm double dipping into the same show two weeks in a row. Because I'm curious can we improve upon the classic combination of butter, two slices of white bread, and some yellow American cheese to make the ultimate grilled cheese or, a grilled cheese deluxe. Friday was national grilled cheese day and I guess it got me in the mood, so to speak. So first up we need a control group, which is a classic yellow American wHite bread Vermont creamery butter grilled in a non stick pan, cheese stretch. hell yeah dude. But how do we make this a grilled cheese deluxe? Let's Start with the bread. white bread is definitely the only way to go because the least healthy option is always gonna be the tastiest one. But I'm going to try out a few different lubrications, plain butter, butter mixed with a little bit of mustard, full fat mayonnaise, and light olive oil. I'm just gonna toast these guys up one at a time in a plain ungreased non stick skillet. And we're looking for ~*aesthetic*~ but mostly flavor here. We obviously want a deep brown rich and savory crust but we don't want to steal the spot light from the star of the show the cheese! let us Bring in the taste testers they are: one Sawyer Carter Jacobs, my business partner and best friend extrodanaire, and Vincent Cross the newest and tallest edition to the babish culinary universe their opinions were split on these different toast lubrication methods Sawyer was pure olive oil and Vinny was all about butter. And I gotta say I side with Vinny on this one. Butter is the one and only true way for grilled cheese. There was however one other toasting application I wanted to try, straight up cheddar grated on to and toasted into the outside of the bread. the consensus here was that it was delicious but it was too greasy and moreover it was overkill this is grilled cheese, it doesn't need any help. What it does need however, is cheese, lots of cheese. So I've got eighteen different kinds here that I'm going to try, including but not limited to, sharp cheddar, mild cheddar, raclette, havarti, swiss, gruyère, aged gouda, young gouda, parmesan, brie, taleggio, mozzarella, blue gorgonzola, provolone, goat, and monterey jack plus whatever I had kicking' around in the fridge. With three mini grilled cheeses at a time my taste testers have returned to tell me what's what. Vinny was very concerned with the tensile strength of each cheese. but both were most interested in the flavor, color, and aged funk of each cheese but apparently none of us were concerned about our cholesterol levels, but I just kept telling myself that I'm conducting these experiments in the name of science, plus they both know they're responsible for their own health care plans, so really it's their fault if you think about it. Anyway we toiled on into the night trying every form of melted cheese betwixt butter toasted bread and once Vinny stretched every sandwich to its limit, it was time to start trying blends. Cause no way was any one cheese gonna cut it, it was going to be about deftly mixing together, salty, sweet, stretchy, melty savory, oily, and funky, into the perfect grilled cheese blend. First up was, monterey jack, gouda, and mozzarella which I learned I didn't put enough cheese in so we didn't get much of a stretch. But this was going to be about flavor. and the consensus was that it was a grilled cheese so obviously it was good. But it needed some work, so we moved to aged yellow cheddar, gruyère, and Swiss. and while they liked the color of this one better, the flavors were too strong Vinny was however satisfied with the stretch next up I was pretty sure I hit the jackpot. Aged cheddar gruyère, a nine month old gouda, and parmesan for a little extra bite. naturally it passed Vinny's rigorous strechyness test, and the flavors were the clear winner. But there was one big problem, this was a greasy, greasy sandwich. And that's because aged cheeses do not melt the same way young heavily processed cheeses. this slice of yellow American dropped directly into a nonstick skillet melts perfectly and evenly and utterly without muss or fuss. Try this with a two year old parmesan however and all your melty cheese dreams will be shattered. Thats because the older cheese gets not only does it lose more and more moisture, some kind of science bullish*t happens with its casings and proteins, and when you melt it you're left with a ton of oil. To solve this problem we're turning to Jay Kenzie Lopez alt who instructs us to hydrate one tablespoon of gelatin and one tablespoon of water before grating our top four cheezes together. Im going with four ounces sharp cheddar, three ounces of gruyère three ounces of young gouda and two ounces of parmesan for a total of 12 ounces that were gonna set aside while we bring half a cup of evaporated milk to a boil, killing the heat and whisking in our hydrated gelatin until it is fully melted into the mixture. Then were going to return the pan over low heat while we add in our cheese you'll notice that my heat is not on because I'm stupid and did this wrong. It still worked but its going to be a lot easier if you do this over low heat while you apply an emersion blender to the mixture in an effort to make it as smooth and homogenous as possible.Then ideally you want to lay it down onto a plastic wrapped lined baking sheet and spread it out as thin as possible. Instead im going to press it into a plastic wrapped lined ramekin and mold it into a cylinder that I can then cut into slices. Four hours later and once my cylinder has solidified, heh sorry. we're removing it using the plastic wrap, unwrapping it and slicing it into our "processed cheese product" its really pretty spooky to eat because it has the same texture and consistency as American cheese but it tastes like gruyère and cheddar and all that good stuff that we put in there. And it passes the melty test with flying colors. Becoming incredibly soft and melty and maluable without pissing grease all over the place. And its got all the flavor and texture that I can possibly ask for in a grilled cheese all it needs is the olives. Now theres a grilled cheese deluxe that lives up to its name. And the olives were actually a pretty touch, they were like a refreshing acidic bite after all that richness and cheese. But I still didn't feel like we were done, I knew I wasn't gonna feel that way until I made my own bread, I've done this on the show before, click the link in the upper right hand corner right now if you wanna see how to make your own sandwich bread at home. But just to give you the breeze through, I'm combining 400 ml of water, one packet of instant yeast, 650 grams of all purpose flour, 50 grams of sugar, 5 grams of salt and 45 grams of unsalted butter, in the bowl of a stand mixer kneading for 5-7 minutes letting rise for 45 minutes in a covered oiled bowl. Punching down and placing into a loaf pan loosely tented with plastic wrap for 45 more minutes or until doubled in size, brushing down with melted butter and placing into 400 degree fahrenheit oven for 25 to 35 minutes until deeply golden brown, removing from the loaf pan placing on a cooling rack and making sure the internal temperature registers about 200 degrees fahrenheit letting rest for one and one half hour or until completely cooled. whoo that was easy. (for you not for me) I definitely over proofed my loaf a little bit but with a little trimming it works perfectly as the foundation for our grilled cheese deluxe. Finally I think we cracked it. Just some olives on the top and then someone to help taste test, and at this point Sawyer and Vinny were at home for the weekend but my buddy Justin here came over to tell me that I really knocked it out of the park with this one. Which I really needed because I don't think I could eat any more grilled cheese. Oh, maybe just one more.
/u/OliverBabish, your methodical approach to all aspects of grilled cheese and peer-review of results is greatly appreciated, but I have to ask several unrelated questions:
Useful links:
Here's a summary that includes Kenji's method of making any cheese sliceable and melty.
This is one of my favorites that Babby has done. Loved the deep dive into the nitty-gritty of grilled cheese.
That is some peak Babish, I love how many options he tried.
Ahh....the Kenji Lopez Alt Melti Cheese Recipe.
It's genius.
Used it once with very old Gouda. So old that it was a bit waxxy and a bit difficult to grate. But it had a very nice sharp flavor and i turned it in an incredible yummie melti cheese.
Gotta say, I'm always impressed with the cheese knowledge. And I'd have never thought of the gelatin trick (or even the cheese blend).
The ending clip belongs on /r/FoodPorn
VINNIE!!!
Never in my life have I wanted a grilled cheese more than I do right now.
This is a bitter sweet episode.
It's a great episode but now I feel like we will never get the Jane The Virgin Grilled Cheese (mainly because this is such a thorough episode).
Also, I really want a grilled cheese now!