The History of the Grilled Cheese and How You Can Make YOUR Mark!
April 12th is coming up quick, for some people that may be just another day, but for us here at The Committed Pig, it is a national holiday! We’re celebrating this year by changing it up and featuring a new grilled cheese for one month. Whose grilled cheese, you might be wondering? Well, it could be YOURS! Here’s a little history lesson on the famous sandwich before we get to how you can enter your grilled cheese into our contest!
It’s a tale as old as time, bread and cheese meet and create the ultimate sandwich that we all know and love… but how did this iconic duo come to be?
Similar recipes are actually mentioned in ancient Roman texts, and we have to give credit to the French with their croque monsieur… but how did we get OUR beloved grilled cheese? History says in the 1920’s, sliced bread and processed cheese had both been created and business expanded rapidly. During WWII, Navy cooks prepared countless amounts of open-faced cheese sandwiches to serve the men on board. In 1949, people finally began to add the second slice of bread to the top of this sandwich to make it more filling, and the grilled cheese sandwich we all know and love was born.
The name “grilled cheese” didn’t actually come around until the 1960’s; before then it was all “toasted cheese” or “melted cheese” sandwiches. Which brings up a very important point – how you actually cook this sandwich doesn’t really matter, and historically the methods have been all over the map. Records show as early as 1902, a recipe for a “Melted Cheese,” designed to be cooked in a hot oven, appeared in Sarah Tyson Rorer’s ‘Mrs. Rorer’s New Cook Book’. A recipe was also published in 1929 in Florence A. Cowles’ ‘Seven Hundred Sandwiches’ called to broil the ingredients to make “Toasted Cheese.” “Toasted Sandwich,” published in 1939 in ‘The Boston Cooking School Cook Book’, encouraged the ingredients to be broiled or even sautéed in a frying pan coated with butter. And in ‘The Joy of Cooking’ (1953), Irma S. Rombauer wrote that bread and cheese should be heated in a commercial waffle iron – an easy meal for even “the maid-less host” to prepare.
Why all this history about grilled cheese you might ask? Well, maybe you knew it or maybe you didn’t, but we’re here to tell you about the most important holiday to ever hit our calendars. National Grilled Cheese Day. Mark it on your calendars people, April 12th is coming soon, and the Committed Pig is getting involved this year with a contest for all ages. We want you to create the most delicious, mouth watering grilled cheese recipe you can and submit it to us – photos and all! The winner will be selected and their recipe will be featured in our restaurants for one month starting on National Grilled Cheese Day! What could be cooler?
To enter, all you have to do is follow our main account on Instagram @thecommittedpig, like our “Grilled Cheese” post, and direct message us with ingredients and photos of your creation. Photos & recipes must be submitted by April 8th!
We can’t wait to see what you come up with! The winner will be announced on our Instagram on April 12th. Get cooking!