Toast First, Grill Later: The Grilled Cheese Trick You're Missing

People love sandwiches. According to survey data from Talker Research, Americans eat six sandwiches a week on average. And of all the hundreds of types of sandwiches we could enjoy, grilled cheese is the most popular. With a stunning 42%, respondents overwhelmingly chose grilled cheese as their favorite, with chicken coming in second and turkey in third. The average American eats 36 grilled cheese sandwiches per year, according to the Campbell's Company. If you count yourself among the sandwich's fans, you'll want to give this little trick a try — toast your bread first.

When we put together our list of grilled cheese hacks, this one stood out, yet you may not be aware of it despite its simplicity. All you have to do is put your bread in the toaster first before adding anything to it. Once it pops, assemble and prepare your grilled cheese as you normally would with untoasted bread.

Pre-toasting your bread ensures a fully crunchy sandwich that pan-frying alone cannot achieve. A normal grilled cheese will have that nice crunchy exterior, but the inside can get soggy, especially if you include more ingredients than just cheese. For example, an elevated grilled cheese, like one that includes slices of fresh tomato, can become an ungainly mess if you're just using fresh bread.

When you pre-toast the bread before adding your butter or bacon grease or whatever fat you use for frying, you're going to develop more flavor. Additionally, the heat from toasting will start the process of melting the cheese, so you can have a finished product that much sooner. Besides, how many times have you cut cheese too thickly and failed to achieve a full melt? Many people overcome this by placing a lid over the grilled cheese to trap heat and moisture, allowing the cheese to melt evenly. The trade-off for this is that the bread usually absorbs a lot of that moisture, and you end up with a chewy sandwich as opposed to a crispy one. Texturally, it's not terrible, and the exterior should still have a bit of crispness, but using toast in place of fresh bread ups the ante.

If you're in a real pinch and can't actually use a stove to make a grilled cheese because it's not working, or you don't have a pan, the toaster can still get you most of the way there. Toast your bread, then assemble with cheese, and microwave your sandwich. Just 30 seconds can melt most cheeses. Adjust your timing accordingly in 10-second intervals if that didn't work. Will it be a classic grilled cheese? Not exactly. But you'll still get crispy bread with melty cheese inside, and that's never a bad thing.