For A Perfectly Crispy Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Think Outside The Bread

Grilled cheese is an outright classic. It's the one thing you always have the ingredients for and the one thing that can turn a gloomy day into a comforting one. It is also one of the most malleable meals that can completely change based on the subtraction or addition of a single element — like spinach artichoke dip, for example.

This creamy dip is an excellent ingredient to use in your next grilled cheese. It offers a unique taste that amps up the sophistication of your sandwich and opens the door to other possible fillings. However, if you prefer something else, Gordon Ramsay's non-vegetarian grilled cheese sandwich could be your next favorite meal. Per an interview with Tasting Table, Ramsay's ideal grilled cheese consists of sourdough bread, olive oil, braised short rib, and Comté cheese, all of which melt and fuse together to create a crisp crust and a gooey, flavorful filling.

Grilled cheese is loved for four main reasons: it's quick, it's easy, it's budget-friendly, and it's delicious. But for one restaurant in the Big Apple, not every price on the menu seems reasonable. Serendipity3's Quintessential Grilled Cheese, ringing in at an astounding $214, was named the world's "most expensive sandwich" by the Guinness Book of World Records. It is made from champagne bread (Dom Pérignon, to be specific), gold flakes, white truffle butter, and an extremely rare Italian cheese. But you don't need to spend a portion of your paycheck to enjoy an elevated grilled cheese — all you need is parmesan.

While some may argue that increased heat and residence on the stove will make bread crisper, it's far more plausible that this technique will only result in two pieces of burnt toast with half-melted cheese smashed in the middle. Instead, hold off on the bread and add your cheese directly to the hot pan.

Yes, you read that right. TikTok account @eatsbymike suggests adding a tab of butter to the pan before sprinkling two bread-sized strips of shredded parmesan next to each other. Next, layer on your buttered bread. The added fat content in the cheese will create a crispy parmesan crust that sticks to the outside of the bread. Place more cheese on top before molding the two slices together. Grill until perfectly browned, and there you have it — a sandwich with the same classic ingredients, formed into a different, elevated experience.

There are plenty of other methods for ramping up your grilled cheese game, of course, and grilled-cheese innovation can pop up virtually anywhere. For example, the Toy Story Land section of the Walt Disney Resort in Florida has become lauded for its imaginative take on the grilled three-cheese.

Grilled cheese and tomato soup are like Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg — you can't have one without the other. These two have been a pair since the start of the 1910s, providing low-cost (yet surprisingly tasty) meals to dinner tables everywhere. While grilled cheese was a basic necessity throughout the '30s, the two staples came together to increase consumers' nutritional value while retaining an economical price. But if you don't feel like warming up a can of Campbell's Tomato Soup or don't have any on deck, there's an easy way to make tomato soup yourself at a relatively cheap cost.

Roasted vegetables are a wonderful alternative to canned soups. Under the Cooking subreddit, many Reddit users have sided with homemade variations that include bell peppers and carrots. Still, some agree that canned tomatoes and roasted vegetables can pair perfectly together. Meanwhile, TikTok user @gabriellevoulgaris shows how easy baking and blending homemade tomato soup is. While garlic bread grilled cheese has been on the rise, you can never go wrong with a crispy parmesan crust or a mayo-covered classic. Perhaps, the two can even be combined to form the ultimate duo.