Cheese on toast
 | |
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Main ingredients | Sliced bread, cheese, sometimes butter |
Cheese on toast is made by placing sliced or grated cheese on toasted bread and melting it under a grill. It is popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, the United States, and in African countries. A similar American meal is the cheese dream, an open-faced version of a grilled cheese sandwich.
Recipes
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Cheese on toast consists of toast (toasted on both sides or just one side), with cheese placed on it and then grilled. Further toppings are optional; the most basic being chopped onions (raw or grilled with the cheese), brown sauce or ketchup. Pickled cucumber, Branston pickle, fried tomatoes, fried eggs, Worcestershire sauce and baked beans are also common.[1][2]
Recipe books and internet articles tend to elaborate on the basics, adding ingredients and specifying accompaniments to make more interesting reading. Consequently, published recipes seldom deal with the most basic form of the dish and frequently refer to the similar dish of Welsh rarebit as "posh cheese on toast".[3]
Cheddar cheese is most commonly used for cheese on toast, as it is a particularly good cheese for toasting.[citation needed] Lancashire dairies, in conjunction with a "National Cheese Toast Day", have promoted Lancashire cheese as the best cheese to use.[4]
Cheese dream
[edit]The cheese dream is an open-faced version of the American grilled cheese sandwich made with bread and cheese, cooked with oil, margarine, or butter. Optional additions on include bacon, avocado, pineapple, eggs, sliced tomato, olives and pickles.[5][6] James Beard described it as "a slice of tomato on bread, covered with American cheese which was melted under the broiler and then graced with crisp bacon".[7][8] One 1932 recipe suggests sprinkling the cheese "very sparingly" with a bit of mustard, cayenne "and a little minced red sweet pepper"; it was browned on both sides and served with "very hot, rich tomato sauce."[9]
It can be cooked in a pan or skillet on the stove top, under a broiler or using a pan in the oven. In its simplest form, it consists of a slice of bread, topped with American cheese, and broiled until the cheese puffs up and browns.[10]
The cheese dream is said to have originated during the Great Depression, as "an inexpensive company supper dish"[5][11] and an inexpensive option for feeding friends and family at Sunday supper.[6] But it was already mentioned in 1918 recipe as a luncheon dish, "our teahouse friend."[12]
Cheese dreams were advertised in 1957 as a 55-cent (equivalent to $6.3 in 2025) luncheonette lenten special in Daytona Beach, Florida's Sunday News Journal.[13]
The term Cheese Dream has also been used to describe grilled cheese sandwiches, and, in one instance, to croque monsieur.[14][15][16][17]
See also
[edit]- Beans on toast, another simple dish made with slices of bread and a topping
- Cheese sandwich
- Grilled cheese sandwich, a hot cheese sandwich in the United States
- Hot Brown
- Open sandwich
- Parmo, a chicken cutlet topped with grilled cheese
- Uunijuusto, a Finnish speciality based on bovine colostrum
- Welsh rarebit, the cheese sauce based dish
- List of bread dishes
- List of toast dishes
References
[edit]- ^ James Martin. "BBC recipe by James Martin". Bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 October 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
- ^ Antony Worrall Thompson. "BBC recipe by Anthony Worrall Thompson". Bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
- ^ Lesley Waters. "BBC recipe by Lesley Waters: cheese sauce on toast". Bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
- ^ "British Cheese Board - Welcome". Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 2009-10-07. British Cheese Board article. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
- ^ a b Uebelherr, Jan (26 March 2004). "There's no secret to great grilled cheese". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on 12 November 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
- ^ a b Marty Meitus Dreaming up variations of grilled cheese Oct 10, 2001 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel p. 29 (Scripps News Service)
- ^ "I Dream Of Cheeses | Sandwich Tribunal". www.sandwichtribunal.com. 24 September 2020.
- ^ Beard, James. James Beard’s Simple Foods.
- ^ "Cheese Dream New Favorite Sandwich". San Jose News. 15 July 1932. Archived from the original on 23 February 2022. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
- ^ "The Official CheeseDreams Network - All things CheeseDreams!". The Official CheeseDreams Network. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
- ^ Meitus, Marty (3 January 1999). "OLD FAITHFUL GRILLED CHEESE, A DEPRESSION-ERA STANDBY, HAS RETURNED". Rocky Mountain News. Archived from the original on 12 November 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
During the Depression, when Sunday Night Suppers became a popular way to entertain, the cheese dream began to appear on dining tables from coast to coast.
- ^ Eaton, Florence Taft (1918). "Meatless Main Dishes". Good Housekeeping. Vol. 67. p. 52.
- ^ "W.T. Grant Co. advertisement". Sunday News Journal. Daytona Beach, FL. 10 March 1957. p. 18.
- ^ Humanities, National Endowment for the (23 August 1908). "The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, August 23, 1908, Image 13". p. 13 – via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
- ^ Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing Dish Recipes. D. McKay. 1916.
- ^ Scothorn, James. "Cheese Dreams". North Coast Journal.
- ^ "The Food Timeline: history notes--sandwiches". www.foodtimeline.org.
