Greenspan's Grilled Cheese

All About Cheese

Cheese is surely one of the favorite kinds of food people enjoy, and that’s especially the case for Americans. Back in the 1970s, the popularity of mozzarella skyrocketed — the reason why was the rise of fast-food restaurants, take-outs, and deliveries. More precisely, the food to blame for this rise in popularity was pizza!

Pizza is well-loved in all corners of the world. Even though it used to be strictly Italian, it found its way to America quickly and gained popularity thanks to large fast-food chains that perfected delivering fresh pizza to customers quickly and without a fuss. Nowadays, anyone will tell you that the main ingredient without which pizza isn’t pizza is cheese.

After its popularity developed, people found other types of cheeses. Speaking of types, one of the lesser-known facts about this dairy product is that there are around 2.000 different kinds of …

1. Grilled Cheese did not start out a sandwich. During World War II, it was just one piece of bread with a slice of cheese on top. The 1960s was when the topper was added.

2. LA once had a Grilled Cheese Invitational. From 1993 to 2014, self-proclaimed experts gathered to compete, where one of the makers would be crowned THE BEST. Sadly, the fest ended three years ago. But feel free to start an invitational of your own!

3. Mayo is the Secret Sauce. If haven’t found a grilled cheese that satisfies your childhood memories, look no more. It’s mayo. The recipe below will show you exactly how and when to apply this creamy, yummy, crisp-sandwich-making ingredient.

4. One sandwich has about 300 calories. This is according to myfitnesspal.com, but you can always make it with low-fat or no-fat cheese if you don’t want all the calories.

5. …

Are you a big fan of cheese? Then you’ll be happy to know cheese can be good for you (in moderation, of course). There are several benefits you may not be aware of. A 2013 study discovered organic dairy has 62% more healthy omega-3 fatty acids than regular milk. And you’ll be hard-pressed to run out of cheeses to choose from; there are more than 3,000 different types of cheese made around the globe, according to chef and author Georgeanne Brennan. In celebration of National Grilled Cheese Month, here are some of the ways cheese can do a body good.

1. Bone health

Cheese, particularly mozzarella, is chock-full of calcium. That means indulging in some cheesy goodness may help strengthen your bones. This is good news considering many Americans are not getting enough calcium in their diets. “Cheese contains a host of nutrients like calcium, protein, phosphorus, …

In the 1993 film “Benny & Joon“, the illiterate, beguiling Sam, played by a young Johnny Depp, cooks a stack of grilled cheese sandwiches using a clothes iron. An appalling culinary technique, yes, but arguably a big moment for this down-home sandwich: anything Johnny Depp touches, after all, has to be important.

And important it is: Some three-quarters of people who buy sliced cheese make at least one grilled cheese a month. While similar recipes are mentioned in Ancient Roman texts — and, let’s face it, the French have been making their famous croque monsieurs since the early 1900s — today’s notion of the grilled cheese is commonly traced back to the 1920s, when Otto Frederick Rohwedder, considered “the father of sliced bread,” invented a bread slicer that made distributing white bread easy and affordable.

Shortly before that, processed cheese had been patented by James L. Kraft, an …

There can only be one most expensive sandwich in the world, and that title belongs to what is also one of the most humble sandwiches out there: the grilled cheese. The New York-based restaurant Serendipity 3 holds the Guinness World Records title of the most expensive sandwich ever. It’s called the Quintessential Grilled Cheese, and it sold for $214.

The price lied in the ingredients. To start with, the bread was Champagne bread made with Dom Perignon and 24 karat gold flakes. White truffle butter was spread on the bread, and then filled with Caciocavallo Podolico cheese — a cheese made from the Italian Podolica cow, of which there are only 25,000 in the world. Another thing adding to the rarity of the cheese: The cows only lactate from May to June.

Hungry customers needed to order 48 hours in advance so the ingredients could be flown in. Today, however, …