Factory Made Grilled Cheese

When I was around seven years old, I sat at my family dining room table eating a grilled cheese sandwich my mother had prepared for me. As I bit into the cheesy, buttery goodness, I looked up at her, smiled, and told her she made the best grilled cheese sandwich in the world. She smiled back and said, “That’s because I used to work in a grilled cheese sandwich factory.”

My eyes got wide and I lit up. “A grilled cheese factory! That’s awesome!” She laughed, and I spent the next ten years thinking my mom actually worked in a grilled cheese factory before I was born.

I remember sitting in study hall, scribbling random notes in my notebook when I thought about how good a grilled cheese sandwich sounded. Then I thought about my mom’s grilled cheese, and then I thought about the grilled cheese sandwich factory. At that moment it clicked, there’s no such thing as a grilled cheese sandwich factory!

I called my mom after school and admitted I just realized there was no such thing as a grilled cheese sandwich factory. She laughed and laughed, and even now, twenty-five years later, it’s still an ongoing joke in our family.

Of course, maybe ten years ago, frozen grilled cheese sandwiches showed up in the freezer section and a grilled cheese sandwich factories became a real thing. I’ve been curious about what a factory-made grilled cheese would taste like, and so when my local grocery store clearance out the Lunchables brand grilled cheese sandwiches, I decided to pick up a box.

Making a grilled cheese is very easy, you just slap some butter on a couple of pieces of bread, a piece of cheese or two in the middle, and cook on medium. It takes maybe five minutes, but I assume for a busy parent a frozen grilled cheese, that only takes one minute to microwave, might be worth buying. But how do you do it, and how does it taste?

I can best describe the process as similar to a Hot Pocket. The grilled cheese comes in a little container to help it crisp up, and you basically take off the plastic and then stick the container on a paper towel in the microwave. Set the timer for a minute and out comes a grilled cheese.

I will say, I was expecting it to taste terrible, but it really wasn’t bad at all. The bread was a bit chewy around the crust, but it reminded me of a grilled cheese you might get at a cafeteria or restaurant. It wasn’t anything wonderful, but it was very clearly a grilled cheese sandwich.

So, three decades, I finally tasted a true factory-made grilled cheese. My mom really underestimated her ability, because her grilled cheese was much better.