Mayo Or Butter For Grilled Cheese?

People who put mayo on grilled cheese are repulsive.

I solved this years ago. Both.

Mayo? 🤮

Fat whore catnip

Looks yummy! Had both and love both. These days I've ventured deeper into my pantry to find some more tasty spreads: Olive oil is heart-healthy with monounsaturated fats and antioxidants. It has a higher smoke point than butter, so it doesn't burn as much. Used on the outside of a grilled cheese sandwich, olive oil creates a crispy texture similar to butter while adding subtleness that complements the cheese. Mashed avocado is rich in healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals. Avocado provides creaminess and moisture without the saturated fat found in butter or mayo. Its unique profile emerges when paired well with various cheeses. Hummus (chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, and garlic) is high in protein and fiber while being lower in fat compared to traditional spreads. It offers creamy texture in addition to an interesting taste. If you're into Nut Butters (like almond or cashew), you will benefit from healthy fats and protein while imparting a slightly sweet nuttiness that enhances the overall taste of the sandwich.

There’s a reason why people say butter makes everything better. On top of being creamy and decadent on its own, butter is packed with lightly sweet milk solids. When cooked, these milk solids transform into brown butter and take on a nutty, toasty flavor. We love using brown butter as a sauce for pasta or as an upgraded base for a chocolate chip cookie. And naturally, it can improve the flavor of a grilled cheese.

But it needs to be said: using butter in a grilled cheese sandwich isn’t always ideal. Brown butter turns into burnt butter in a matter of seconds and can ruin the flavor of anything you’re cooking. It takes sometechnical skill and practice to perfectly time the browning of the butter with the toasting of the bread and the melting of the cheese in the center. And because the butter can brown so quickly, you often have to take your sandwich out of the pan before the bread has enough time to evenly toast.

And from a practical perspective, butter is a solid fat and can be extremely firm straight out of the fridge. So unless you have a butter bell hanging out on your counter, you need to set aside some time to let your cold butter soften enough to spread.

While I cooked this sandwich, I had to watch the stove like a hawk and consistently adjust the position of the pan to avoid any unevenly toasted spots. The finished sandwich ended up evenly golden and rich—but admittedly, I’ve made plenty of butter-based grilled cheeses in the past that had less beautiful results.

Mayo For those unfamiliar with exactly what mayonnaise is, it’s an emulsion of oil and some type of acid (usually vinegar or lemon), with egg. The egg acts as a binder that brings together two unlike ingredients to form a thick and creamy spread. It’s the same science that goes into making smooth salad dressings. Mayonnaise has a similar fat content as butter, but is spreadable straight out of the fridge.

Another perk of using mayonnaise for grilled cheese is that you don’t need to worry about burning milk solids. The fat in mayo can withstand high temperatures, so you can take as much time as you need to develop the perfect level of brown on the outside of your sandwich. I used Hellmann’s mayo, but virtually any brand will work. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that you should use regular, full-fat mayo. Light mayo has significantly more water content, which will steam your bread rather than toast it.

The only drawback for some is that you miss some of the creamy, nostalgic flavor that you’d get with the butter. Mayo has a more neutral flavor profile, which is great if you want the cheese and other fillings in the center to shine. I personally have no issue with the flavor of an all-mayo sandwich. But traditionalists may still miss the butter.

Mayo + Butter There are pros to using butter and mayo individually in your grilled cheese sandwich. But does combining the two spreads achieve the best of both worlds? We say yes!

Cooking foods in both oil and butter is a popular technique to reap the flavor benefits of the butter with the practical appeals of oil. We tried this technique by combining equal parts mayo and softened butter, then spreading it on the exterior of our sandwich. Having to wait for the butter to soften, then stirring it into the mayo was more time consuming than the other two methods.

But the results speak for themselves. The mayo and butter combo crisped up like a dream and I didn’t have to worry about any burnt butter solids. The overall verdict? If you want a low effort, high reward grilled cheese, use mayo. But if you want to make an extra special sandwich, use a mayo-butter combo.

We're traditionalists.

Butter! But then you have to eat it fast, within that window of “yum” where the outside is still very warm and buttery-crispy.

Mayo in lieu of butter is a repulsive idea. Not trying it.

I have never tried it, but I think mayo sounds like a great idea.

OP/r6/r7 Learn brevity. Seek help.

Mayo, of course. With a Chesterfield chaser.

The third option is horse paste.

Then you may as well try miracle whip…

Depends on the cheese and especially the bread.

DL: repulsed by mayo; swallows cum, eats ass.

I wish I had a gun right now

People writing or sharing content that includes terms such as "hotly debating," or being "contentious" or "divided" about grilled (or toasted) cheese deserves to have a pot of fondue cheese poured onto their heads.

Must everything arise from some cunt pouring

Anyone who puts mayo on grilled cheese needs to be stabbed, shot, strangled, suffocated, and bludgeoned.

R16 was munching on her mother's shit when she posted her homophobic observation.

It make her surly when Mama has had chili.

I use butter. I’ve never had a problem with it and I’m no cook. Just keep the bread from burning, then you don’t have to worry about the butter, it’s not rocket science.

R11 seems unaware that the OP was pasting a stupid click-food story.

R11 needs to learn contextualization and the fact that the world doesn't exist to accommodate her attention problems.

Deplorables use mayo

Butter on the outside, mayo inside. Pickle on the side.

r24 Grossssss

Speaking of context, R16 has issues:

Why is Michelle Obama not at Jimmy Carter's funeral? I'm trying to imagine what type of scheduling conflict she would have while on extended vacation in Hawaii. Spa day? Snorkeling lesson? Hula dancing seminar? Tacky bitch. I will forgive her if "something suddenly comes up" and she cant attend the inauguration.

Vairst Ledee Looking Like Absolute Shit at President Carter's Funeral. And just where is Michelle Obama? Getting her hair did? Bitch.

Paris Jackson reveals she is five years sober after battling alcohol and heroin addiction. She's transracial you bigot! Race is a social construct!

Another question, which R24 mentioned, is that whatever you use, do you coat only the outer sides of the bread or the inner sides also?

Okay, gang, we're gonna wrap this one up quickly.

Butter (real butter, no margarine)

Simple White Bread (I don't care what brand, but it's simple white bread)

Cheese - either American or Cheddar (no other type of cheese will do)

Grilled cheese must be grilled on the stove. A grilled cheese is not a cheese toast; never confuse the two.

Serve with soup of choice (preferably Tomato)

The end.

I don't want to hear about your deconstructed grilled cheeses with fancy breads and cheeses; those are not grilled cheese. Nothing goes on or in a grilled cheese except cheese and butter.

Thread closed.

I’ve always used butter primarily as this is what I was taught, but I have also used mayonnaise when I’ve been out of butter and I find it works just as well. I honestly don’t notice a strong difference in taste.

Butter on the outside of the bread, mayonnaise on the inside with the cheese.

Perfection.

[quote] Serve with soup of choice (preferably Tomato)

This for sure. Sometimes I even dunk a pointy end of the sandwich into the soup.

But then we are talking about how to cut the sandwich, and which oil content allows for a better cut.

This reminds me of that old "toast points" thread. From that thread I learned there are contraptions for making perfect toast points.

Kerry gold butter

I used to use butter now I just throw some olive oil in the pan.

Butter gives me zits.

You're not supposed to put it on your face.

I like slathering sourdough in butter and giving it a nice coat of black pepper

It's easier to have fresh delicious butter on hand than good mayonnaise. Which is by default, homemade mayonnaise. It's not difficult to make but it does dirty up a few extra things, just for a sandwich.

I use Raclette from the Valais in Switzerland. It's made with raw milk from fine swiss cows and its entire purpose is to be melted, usually on potatoes, but it works wonderfully in grilled cheese.

I follow R28’s rules when making grilled cheese sandwiches,

Except I layer sliced grilled tomatoes with the cheese

And I use brioche and add a square of fried pork belly to the center

PAM spray. Dip the sandwich in catsup. Wash down with Mountain Dew. Followed by box cake.

Butter of course. But then, I was raised right.

Regarding the soup to serve... tomoato is the standard and a fine one... but I really enjoy pea soup with ham when enjoying a grilled cheese. M'mmm, m'mmm good.

I wish someone would slather my sourdough, it’s been 15 years ….

Well, I never thought I would hear such a deep discussion on grilled cheese sandwiches, but I will express my favorite, not that I would not try others.

I prefer sourdough bread. However, sourdough takes time to get evenly crusty with butter as the center never seems to get brown and the sides tend to burn. So, I switched to mayo and find I can leave the bread in the pan until everything is evenly brown. Second, I like to use cheddar or Jack cheese which doesn't melt as quickly as American cheese. Hence, a longer fry time is required. Lastly, I enjoy a bit of Dijon mustard, so I spread a thin layer on the insides of my bread. Perhaps, a few pickles would be nice, so I add those too.

I consider my grilled cheese sandwiches gourmet and not... fast food!

I learned from Brini Maxwell that mayonnaise works better than butter…

R45 here I mixed it up. Butter is better than mayonnaise 🙄🙄

I've never heard of mayo on a grilled cheese sandwich. Is this something new?

The only benefit to mayo on the exterior of your grilled cheese is that it is more crispy than butter. But grilled mayo comes with a bunch of downsides. It tastes like overheated/rancid oil, and there’s a bit of sourness that one doesn’t associate with GC. I tried it once using Kewpie, and never again.

To counter-act the "dangers" of "burnt milk solids" from butter: lower the heat in your pan.

There is a lot of overthinking going on here. Try it with mayo if you’re curious. Go back to butter if you don’t like it. I tried it when it first became popular several years ago, didn’t like it so never tried again.

Also, if you’re burning your grilled cheese sandwiches, your pan is too hot. It makes no difference what you spread on the bread, lower the temperature.

Which one works better as a lube?

No butter ever; just Kraft's Salad Dressing. For decades I thought it was just another brand of mayonnaise. And grilled cheese had to. be accompanied with Campbell's tomato soup made with cream.

Do you mean Miracle Whip? It's just low-class mayonnaise.

[quote]I tried it once using Kewpie, and never again.

But Kewpie and mayonnaise aren’t interchangeable. Kewpie is Japanese mayo made with egg yolks only.

There are two kinds of Kewpie mayo.

Red labeling: similar to Best Foods / Hellman's except made with egg yolks, only. I've had this one and it tastes good, but not THAT much better than Best Foods.

Blue labeling: haven't tried this one, but I think it's more like Miracle Whip, which I don't like.

r47 Didn't know it was a thing up until recently. I had a restaurant serve it. It was okay, but I feel like it made it taste a little off and was unnecessary. Butter is just fine.

Tried the mayo once. Didn't care for it as I like the buttery taste.

I grew up strongly in the butter camp, but after hearing from so many mayo fans I decided to conduct a blind taste test. I found that more people preferred the sandwich made with mayo -including me. It browned better without burning, and was less creasy in hand. But, like many things, to each his own. It's like nuts in chocolate chip cookies...

R53 my mom and her brothers hated Miracle Whip. They were raised during the Depression and the Second World War and my grandmother used it for almost everything.

Miracle Whip is NOT mayonnaise.

This is like asking whether you should use jelly or mayo on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Mayo on the outside of the bread, just a thin scraping, then the sandwich cooked in butter.

Deplorables don't use Hellman's Mayonnaise.

They use Duke's, Miracle Whip or Spin Blend.

Lots of people like Duke's. It's a regional thing.

[quote]Spin Blend

I don’t even want to know what this is.

Never ever Mayo unless you want intensified soybean oil flavor.

Am I the only one who made a grilled cheese sandwich after reading this thread? Unfortunately, I had to use whole wheat bread since that's all I had. But it was still good.

No, but I have all of the ingredients: Dave's Killer bread (21 grains n seeds), Kerrygold salted butter, and some good cheeses (Kingdom (from Costco) cheddar) and Kerrygold Dubliner cheese).

Butter and I sometimes have Grilled Cheese and sliced tomato. It's good.

[quote]Never ever Mayo unless you want intensified soybean oil flavor.

They make mayo with other oils, too.

Vaughn of NYT Cooking does a bunch of experiments to find which works best. The winner is mayo on the outside, no butter on the inside, shredded Cheddar and American cheese, and a tomato slice inside. He also does variations that include pepper jack cheese and raspberry jam; pimento cheese and pickled jalapeno; and herb compound butter on the outside with Gruyère cheese and caramelized shallots inside.

And Vaughn is lactose intolerant.

Like I said above (R58) -You need to actually experiment and see for yourself. There's no harm in preferring one over the other, but it's stupid to claim that one version is "wrong" especially if you've never actually tried it.

Here in Utah, mayo with catsup are the only combination worth your consideration.

I buy mayonnaise with olive oil or avocado oil.

Putting butter or mayo on the *inside* of the sandwich (along with the cheese) just seems like overkill. Not in a good way.

[quote] grilled (or toasted) cheese

Anyone who refers to these as "toasted" cheese is trash.

"Grilled" is not really a good name for it, either. If anything, it's a griddled cheese sandwich.

My mom did make good grilled cheese sandwiches and did refer to it as "cheese toast." If she's trash for calling it cheese toast, so be it.

She's not trash for calling it cheese toast, but a cheese toast is not a grilled cheese.

The cheese is on the outside on cheese toast and on the inside for grilled cheese. Anyone who calls a grilled cheese cheese toast should be slapped so hard her head would spin like a 10 penny nail hit with a greasy ball peen hammer.

R79 trivializes violence against women.

Do better, R79

I always have my grilled cheese sandwich with my favorite canned soup, Progresso Creamy Tomato with Basil. If you haven't tried it, you should

So many angry people on this thread…

r81 Make it instead. Tomato soup is one of the things that is easy and worth it to make fresh.

I prefer a vegetable soup. I do add some kind of tomato product to it though.

[quote] “…. and Martha Stewart all swear by mayo as the secret to their sandwiches.”

She's a vulgarian!

[quote]Make it instead. Tomato soup is one of the things that is easy and worth it to make fresh.

Dear God, won't you just stop.

R73 sometimes i mix mayo and ketchup with some paprika and black pepper, it’s a good burger dressing

One of best grilled cheese I've had is at Swinger's in L.A.- Stuffed Grilled Cheese: jack and cheddar cheese, house-made guacamole, sliced tomatoes, and grilled red onions, served on grilled sourdough bread. I don't know if they use butter or mayo.

[Quote] Butter! But then you have to eat it fast,

Who makes a grilled cheese sandwich and then eats it hours later?

[quote]R88 One of best grilled cheese I've had is at Swinger's in L.A.

I loved Swingers when I lived in L.A.! Cute, hip, affordable, good food : )

usually I could snag one of those window tables on the left because I went when it wasn’t jammed.

You should use WD40 — spreadable and never burns!

In fact it’s sprayable! So even better than mayo.

r86 Why?

What do they use on panini?

Butter tastes better, but mayo is still pretty good and it’s much easier. Also, I can use a LOT less mayo than butter and sacrifice only a little quality.