The big cheese — Grilled classic comfort food oozes with lots of variations

The grilled-cheese sandwich is simple comfort food — golden, toasted bread oozing with rich, velvety cheese inside. Add a simple salad or bowl of soup (tomato seems to be the standard choice) for a satisfying meal.

In this case, the term "grilled" doesn't mean the sandwich is cooked outdoors. Instead, they're usually smeared with a little butter or oil and sauteed in a skillet or on a griddle. Some folks use panini presses, a waffle iron or even a George Foreman-type grill to accomplish the cooking.

Although it's been around long enough to be considered a "classic," the grilled-cheese sandwich seems to attract new fans with each generation. In 2006, it became an Internet movement with food blog writers around the world.

A Food & Wine magazine article called many food blogs boring and referred to them as "cheese sandwich" blogs. In a spirit of retaliation, a number of food bloggers declared a Cheese Sandwich Day, posting recipes on a variety of cheese sandwiches, along with sayings such as "More Food. Less Whine."

High heat is one of the few things that can ruin a grilled-cheese sandwich — burning the exterior before the cheese has time to melt, or causing the cheese's proteins to seize up and turn stringy. Low and slow is the rule.

In the book "American Classics" (Boston Common Press, $29.95), the editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine say you can leave the sandwich over low heat for up to 30 minutes on one side.

"Few of us have that kind of time to spend making a simple sandwich," the editors note. "But the fact is, the longer it takes for the bread to turn golden, the more developed and crispy the exterior will be."

However, they conclude, you can get away with using medium-low heat and about five minutes of cooking per side.

These same Cook's Illustrated folks advise grating, rather than slicing, the cheese, so it will melt more evenly during cooking. They're even specific about the type of grater you should use: the large holes of a box grater. And, they advise melting the butter before brushing it on the bread, again for even cooking.

But all these complications are unnecessary, unless you are the classic overachiever.