Rodriguez - 30 Days of Grilled Cheese: A journey into a dreamland of grilled cheese goodness and majesty!

Thirty Days of Grilled Cheese

A journey into a dreamland of grilled cheese goodness and majesty

Jeremiah Rodriguez

GeekJacket Creative

Written and photographed by Jeremiah Rodriguez.

Additional copy writing provided by Raquel Rodriguez and Georgia Bollinger.

Copyright 2015 GeekJacket Creative. All rights reserved.

This book is dedicated to my dad, Salvador. He taught me what it means to be a man, a father, and to love by doing, not just by words alone. His favorite times were when the family was gathered around good food and a happy table. Id make him a plate full of grilled cheese sandwiches if he were still here. #fcancer

Salvador Zermeo Rodriguez

February 1950 January 2015

Kickstarter Special Thanks

Special thanks go out to the fine folks who backed my Thirty Days of Grilled Cheese campaign on Kickstarter. Your support helped to make this madness possible.

Eric Allsup

Georgia Bollinger

Uriel Cantarero

Wendy Hollis

Diana Dee Jarvis

Curt So there I was Sundell

Ian Warney

Ivan Wong

Thanks to my family and friends who encouraged me to get all these ideas down and do something with them. Special thanks to my wife and kids who suffered through all the taste trials of different variations of these recipes as I developed them it had to be rough.

-J

Table of Contents

Preface 1

About Cheese 2

Cheese, the Basics2

Favorite Cheeses2

Brands3

Cheeses to Avoid3

Tips for Success4

How Much Cheese to Use?4

Bread 5

Artisan Breads5

Butter 7

Your Bread Needs Fat!7

Homemade Butter Spread8

Tools for Success 9

Cooking Surfaces9

Other Must-haves and Need-to-knows10

Rules of Thumb 13

Recipes! 14

Biscoff n Brie15

Blueberry Brie17

The Breakfast Beast19

Caramelized Onion21

Cheddar Bacon23

Chili Cheese25

Cinnamon Roll27

The Classic29

Crab Rangoon31

Crunchy Peach n Brie33

The Eggcado35

Garlic Mushroom37

Granny Smith & Gouda39

Guac n Jack41

The Hapgood Caprese43

Heisenberg45

Jalapeo Popper47

Mac n Cheese49

Nachos51

Nutella Banana53

Olive Tapenade55

Peach n Brie57

The Peppered Pickle59

Pepper Jack61

Pepperoni Pizza63

Raspberry Fontina65

Roasted Red Pepper67

Smores69

Three Cheese Artichoke and Olive71

Tuna Melt73

The Vegan75

Preface

Since I was a kid Ive always enjoyed food. Watching mom cook, that enjoyment expanded to include cooking. Dads favorite times were when everyone got together and shared a nice meal. Now, into my adult years with a wife and kids, cooking expanded further into a way to enjoy time together and to prepare good food for people whose company I enjoy.

Along this path of cooking and eating I rediscovered something from my youth grilled cheese sandwiches. Id had them many times, but then at my grandmas house one day, my aunt, Karrie, made me a grilled cheese. Instead of just throwing the bread in a heated pan, she first melted a dollop of butter in the pan and then added the bread. Upon biting into it, my eyes lit up. This was not the same grilled cheese I had experienced at the school cafeteria. This was something new entirely. The extra crunch made it all come together.

For the longest time aunt Karries cheddar on white bread grilled cheese was what my mental dictionary displayed as the very definition of a grilled cheese sandwich. Then, a few years ago as I was perusing recipe ideas on some website which escapes me, I came across a recipe for a jalapeo popper grilled cheese sandwich. It had never occurred to me that a grilled cheese sandwich could have something besides cheddar cheese as a filling. I tried that sandwich and suddenly I began to see new possibilities for aunt Karries venerable cheddar on white. One day I was eating one of these new breeds of grilled cheese sandwiches while looking over a calendar for work. Thats when the idea hit me a calendar of grilled cheese sandwiches! One for every day of the month! Its genius!!

And so began Thirty Days of Grilled Cheese

About Cheese

Cheese, the Basics

Cheese seems like a simple thing when you think about a grilled cheese sandwich. You just stick whatever cheese you have in there and melt it, right? That would be incorrect. There are a multitude of different cheeses out there and they all have their own unique properties. Theyre almost like people. Milk-based, tasty, tasty people.

Thinking of cheese like people, picture some people that you like and some people that you dont really care for. Some youd like to be around and the others, well, not so much. Its really the same with a grilled cheese sandwich. Some cheeses have a great melty-gooeyness coefficient. Thats a real thing. Its science. Softer cheeses melt better. These cheeses are usually good candidates for a grilled cheese sandwich.

Other cheeses, the hard ones, may not work so well at least not on their own. Take for instance Greek Myzithra (the aged variety, not fresh). While it may be great grated over a salad, on its own its a terrible melter for grilled cheese. Some of these work well when paired with a softer cheese.

Now, just because you pick a softer cheese does not mean its instantly a good choice for a grilled cheese sandwich. Keep in mind that there are a huge variety of flavors with the soft cheeses as well. On one end, you have the nearly bitter awesomeness that is aged, extra-sharp cheddar. On the lighter end, you have the super mild, also awesome mozzarella. Both work great, but they dont blend equally as great with the other ingredients that you might pick to accompany them. Finding the right pairing of cheese, bread and other stuffings is a fine balancing act.

Favorite Cheeses

There are several cheeses I prefer to use in my sandwichery. These are my favorites: medium and sharp Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella (not the super fresh watery kind. While it tastes great it makes your sandwich soggy), Fontina, Gouda, Provolone, Gorgonzola, and Colby-Jack. I use these cheeses the most because of their flavors and how well they melt. Just because these are my favorites dont think that excludes any cheeses you may enjoy, as long as they melt well, try them out!

Brands

Generally I would say the brand of cheese doesnt matter. That said, Im a big fan of Tillamook out of Oregon for Cheddars, Colby-Jack and Monterey Jack. They have several varieties that no one else makes with things like black pepper or habanero peppers added. Awesome. There are also some local cheeses that are amazing, though most of these that I liked are better suited for a cheese and cracker plate than for grilled cheese use.

Cheeses to Avoid

Any of the singles varieties that come individually wrapped and say something like cheese product. They arent cheese. They are hate. They are sadness. They are the depths of despair. Never use them, not even in a pinch. Well, there is one exception. One of my recipes is a vegan grilled cheese sandwich and most vegan cheeses are sold as individually wrapped slices.

Pre-sliced, Deli-sliced, Home-sliced or Grated?

This is a tricky topic. I definitely have my preferences, but Ive been known to be a bit of a food/method snob. I find nothing wrong with spending 10 hours making spaghetti sauce with tomatoes you just picked from your own garden that morning. With that being said, Ill explain what I think the ups and downs are of these different ways of getting cheese into your face hole.

Pre-sliced

Pros: Convenient, uniform thickness.