How to Make Grilled Cheese With Melted Cheese and Golden Bread

Saturday lunch, the bread is black at the edges and the cheddar in the middle is still a cold, stiff slice. Here is how to make grilled cheese that melts all the way through: spread butter or mayo on the outside of the bread, cook it on medium-low heat, and cover the pan so steam melts the cheese while the bread browns for 2 to 3 minutes a side.

The fix is heat control, not a fancier sandwich. America's Test Kitchen found high heat scorches the outside before the cheese has time to melt, and moved every sandwich to medium-low. Houseland's uncoated titanium frying pan ships with a tempered glass lid sized to the pan, which is the piece that does the melting.

How to make grilled cheese that melts before the bread burns: what are the steps?

Fat on the outside, cheese at room temperature, medium-low heat, a lid, then a 1-minute rest. These steps combine the methods of America's Test Kitchen, Love and Lemons and Once Upon a Chef.

1. Take the cheese out while you prep. ATK's grown-up version asks for room-temperature cheddar and microwaves the cold pieces for about 30 seconds to get there.
2. Grate or thinly slice it. Love and Lemons finds grated cheese melts more evenly than a slice, using 1 to 2 oz per cheese.
3. Spread a thin layer of softened butter or mayo on the outside of both slices, about 1 to 2 tablespoons per sandwich, per Once Upon a Chef.
4. Preheat the pan. ATK heats a skillet over medium for 2 minutes, until flicked water droplets just sizzle, then turns it down to medium-low.
5. Lay the sandwich in, cover, and cook 2 to 3 minutes until the bottom is golden, per Love and Lemons.
6. Flip, cover again, and cook 1 to 3 minutes more until the cheese runs. Drop the heat to low if the bread browns first.
7. Rest it for 1 minute on a board, so the cheese sets slightly and doesn't flood out when you cut it, as Once Upon a Chef advises.

Low and covered beats fast and hot every time.

Why does the bread burn before the cheese melts?

The bread touches hot metal directly, but the cheese only warms through two slices of insulating bread. Turn up the heat and the outside gets there first.

ATK's advice is short: don't use high heat, because it scorches the outside before the interior cheese has time to melt. Medium-low is the setting in its Classic Grilled Cheese Sandwiches recipe, which takes 3 to 5 minutes for the first side and about 2 minutes for the second.

Bread thickness adds time. Once Upon a Chef uses 1/2 in (1.3 cm) slices of tight-crumbed bread with no holes, so the cheese doesn't leak out. Thick-cut sourdough needs the lower end of the heat and the lid on.

Cold cheese adds time too. A slice straight from a 40 °F (4 °C) fridge has to warm all the way up while the bread sits on the pan. That's why ATK starts its aged cheddar at room temperature.

Your bread isn't too thin. Your burner is too high.

A low burner works best in a pan you can cover, since a lid traps steam and helps the cheese catch up with the bread. Recommended for this use case: the parent making one or two grilled cheese sandwiches on a school night should look at the 10.2 in (26 cm) size, which the listing pitches for one or two portions, and use the glass lid to watch the cheese melt without lifting it. Houseland's titanium pan is uncoated and ships with a tempered glass lid sized to it.

From the shop

Titanium Frying Pan, Uncoated, Induction Safe, with Tempered Glass Lid

Best for one or two grilled cheese sandwiches melted under a lid; uncoated titanium with a tempered glass lid, 10.2 in (26 cm) or 11 in (28 cm) cooking diameter; bare metal needs a 2-minute preheat and fat on the bread to release cleanly.

View the uncoated titanium pan — 2 sizes & current price

Which cheese melts best in a grilled cheese?

Higher-moisture, younger cheeses melt most easily; dry, long-aged cheeses mostly sweat oil. The Cheese Science Toolkit explains that cheese is a protein mesh holding fat and water, so more water and fat soften it, while heavy aging chops the proteins up and leaves free oil.

American cheese has a legal reason to melt. Under 21 CFR 133.169, pasteurized process cheese is heated and mixed with an emulsifying agent such as sodium citrate, up to 3% of its weight, into what the rule calls a homogeneous plastic mass.

ATK's classic blend is 1 1/3 cups sharp cheddar with 2/3 cup Monterey Jack: tang from one, melt from the other. If aged cheddar is your favorite, its grown-up recipe blends it with 2 oz Brie and 2 tablespoons white wine into a paste, which melts evenly without turning greasy. For more on why aged cheese breaks, see why cheese sauce turns grainy every single time.

Aged cheese brings flavor; young cheese brings the melt.

Butter vs mayo on the outside: which gives golden bread?

Both brown well; mayo spreads straight from the fridge, and butter tastes richer. ATK tested the mayo trend and found both work in this job.

ATK's classic recipe brushes 4 tablespoons of melted butter over 8 slices, which is about 1 tablespoon per sandwich. Love and Lemons goes mayo on the bread and a little butter in the pan. Once Upon a Chef says a mix of both works.

The fat you pick matters less than spreading it edge to edge.

Should you cover the pan to melt the cheese?

Yes: a lid traps steam in the pan and melts the cheese while the bread toasts. That's Love and Lemons' step, covered on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes for the first and 1 to 3 for the second.

ATK takes a different route: it presses the sandwiches under a round cake pan to mimic a panini press, for more crust. Pick by what you want. A lid gives you more melt, and a weight gives you more crunch. Either one lets you stay at medium-low.

• Lid: the cheese melts faster, and the bread stays slightly softer.
• Weight (cake pan or a second skillet): flatter, crisper crust.
• Neither: fine for thin bread and young cheese; turn to low for the second side.

If you use an uncoated titanium pan like the one recommended above, the trade-off is real. ATK and Love and Lemons both cook grilled cheese in a nonstick or cast-iron skillet, and bare titanium has no coating to fall back on. The listing calls it stick-resistant with a proper preheat and a little fat, so the butter or mayo edge to edge on the bread is doing double duty. Preheat on medium for about 2 minutes, as the listing and ATK both say, before you drop to medium-low. If you want to know how much fat bare metal really needs, how much oil an uncoated frying pan actually needs goes through it, and the rest of the cookware sits in the kitchen and home collection. Hand wash it after, with warm water while it's still warm.

Put the lid on, and the cheese does the waiting for you.

How do you keep grilled cheese crisp after it leaves the pan?

Get air under it: a hot sandwich on a flat plate steams its own bottom soggy. ATK's Miye Bromberg traced soggy grilled cheese to condensation building up beneath the sandwich.

• Set 2 chopsticks side by side on the plate and lay the sandwich across them, ATK's fix. A thick sandwich may need a third.
• Rest it on a cutting board for 1 minute before slicing, per Once Upon a Chef.
• Cooking for four? ATK cooks 2 at a time and slides the first batch onto a baking sheet heated in a 250 °F (121 °C) oven.
• For a longer hold, ATK's grown-up recipe uses a wire rack set in a baking sheet in a 200 °F (93 °C) oven.

A wire rack does the same job as the chopsticks for a crowd. Tomato soup on the side is optional; the chopsticks are not.

Crisp is won in the pan and lost on the plate.

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