Binging with Babish: Grilled Cheese Deluxe from Regular Show

Whoa, is that a grilled cheese deluxe from Cheezers? Yes, it is. Ah, how did you manage this? I bought it with money. Nice. Hey, you know what would go good with these sandwiches? Funny internet videos. Ooh, that's kind of meta. Hey, what's up, guys? Welcome back to Binging with Babish, 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 nonstick 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, nonstick 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 wanna steal the spotlight from the star of the show, the cheese. So let us bring in the taste testers. They are one Sawyer Carter Jacobs, my business partner and best friend extraordinaire, and Vincent Cross, the newest and tallest addition 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, which was straight up cheddar grated onto and toasted into the outside of the bread. The consensus here is 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 18 different kinds here that I'm going to try, including, but not limited to, sharp cheddar, mild cheddar, raclette, Havarti, Swiss, gruyere, aged gouda, young gouda, Parmesan, brie, taleggio, mozzarella, blue, gorgonzola, provolone, goat, and Monterey Jack, plus whatever else 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. But apparently, none of us were concerned about our cholesterol levels. But I just kept telling myself I'm conducting these experiments in the name of science. Plus, they both know that they're responsible for their own healthcare 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 buttered toasted bread. And once Vinny stretched every sandwich to its limit, it was time to start trying blends. Because no way was any one cheese gonna cut it. It was gonna 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 that I didn't put enough cheese in, so we didn't get much of a stretch. But this was gonna 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, gruyere, and Swiss. And while they liked the color of this one better, the flavors were too strong. Vinny was, however, satisfied with its stretch. Next up, I was pretty sure I hit the jackpot. Aged cheddar, gruyere, a nine-month-old Gouda, and Parmesan for a little extra bite. Naturally, it passed Vinny's rigorous stretchiness 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 in the same way as 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 of your melty cheese dreams will be shattered. That's because the older cheese gets, not only does it lose more and more moisture, some kind of science bullshit happens with its casein proteins, and when you melt it, you're left with a ton of oil. To solve this problem, we're turning to J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, who instructs us to hydrate one tablespoon of gelatin in one tablespoon of water before grating our top four cheeses together. I'm going with four ounces of sharp cheddar, three ounces of Gruyere, three ounces of young Gouda, and two ounces of Parmesan, for a total of 12 ounces that we're 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 we're 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 I did this wrong. It still worked, it's just going to be a lot easier if you do this over low heat while you apply an immersion 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 wrap lined baking sheet and spread it out as thin as possible. Instead, I'm going to press it into a plastic wrap lined ramekin and mold it into a cylinder that I can then cut into slices. Four hours later, and once my cylinder has solidified, sorry, we are removing it, using the plastic wrap, unwrapping it, and slicing into our quote unquote processed cheese product. It's really pretty spooky to eat because it has the same texture and consistency as American cheese, but it tastes like Gruyere 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 malleable without pissing grease all over the place. And it's got all the flavor and texture that I could possibly ask for in a grilled cheese. All it needs is the olives. Now there's a grilled cheese deluxe that lives up to its name. And the olives were actually a pretty nice touch. They were like a refreshing acidic bite after all that richness and cheese. But I still didn't feel like we were done and 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 want to see how to make your own sandwich bread at home. But just to give you the breeze through, I'm combining 400 milliliters of water, one packet of instant yeast, 650 grams of all-purpose flour, 50 grams of sugar, five grams of salt, and 45 grams of unsalted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Kneading for five to seven minutes, letting rise for 45 minutes in a covered oil bowl, punching down and placing into a loaf pan loosely tented with plastic wrap and letting rise for 45 more minutes or until doubled in size. Brushing down with melted butter and placing into a 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 that the internal temperature registers about 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Letting rest for one and one half hours or until completely cooled. Whew, that was easy. I definitely over-proved 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 in the top, and then someone to help taste test. At this point, Sawyer and Vinnie 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. Maybe just one more. ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪