Grilled Cheese Vs English Toastie: What's The Difference?

While working in the U.K., my fellow American boss and I would invite British friends over for a grilled cheese night. We always started with a basic cheese and bread version, then we would get fancy with some tasty grilled cheese mix-ins. Baffled, the Brits would always need more information before they'd commit, largely, they'd ask, "what is grilled cheese?" After explaining  that it's a bread and cheese sandwich pan-fried with butter, they always replied with this rejoinder: "Ah, so a toastie?" At the time I knew there was a difference, but I could never put my finger on it. English toasties were drier, that's all I could tell.

There's a debate over the difference between a toastie and a grilled cheese. Many people claim they are the same and most agree the differences are minor. It all comes down to the method of cooking and the placement of the butter or mayonnaise. And while the differences in preparation are small, the effects they have on the flavor and texture are big.

The ingredients of a basic, bare bones toastie and grilled cheese are the same: cheese, bread, and butter. What cheese is up to you, but some cheeses make for better grilled cheeses than others. To make a traditional toastie, you spread the butter inside the two pieces of bread and cook it in an oven or a toastie maker (essentially a panini press). One of the early recipes, from "The Book of Household Management" published in London in 1861, has this basic toastie recipe with the sandwich being cooked in the oven.

A classic grilled cheese recipe has the butter spread on the outside and is fried in a pan with more butter, resulting in a more moist and decadent sandwich. A more modern twist is to spread mayonnaise on the outside, which results in browner, crispier bread and a richer flavor. Either way, the outside has more of a crust than a traditional toastie. The history of grilled cheese in America likely began in the 1920s with the cheap and filling "cheese dream." This was an open faced cheese sandwich using shredded cheese with affordable toppings or spices. In the 1960s, when Kraft Singles became more available in the mainstream, people added a second slice of bread to make it more filling.

Both toasties and grilled cheese can include other ingredients like ham, tomato, onions, and more. Toastie modernists now make them more like a grilled cheese, while the purists insist on recipes like the one from 1861. The debate over the differences will likely never end, but as long as there's melted cheese in the middle and butter in the mix, it's going to be delicious.