Home cooks have been raving over Martha Stewart’s one-ingredient hack for making “the best” cheese toasties ever. The cheap hack gives grilled cheese a golden brown crust with an irresistibly crunchy texture that will ensure cooks never go back to their tried and tested methods.
Many chefs swear by spreading butter on the outside of the bread before frying to help get the signature crisp. However, Martha Stewart’s recipe uses a different ingredient to get the golden colour and crisp texture, plus, it’s cheaper than butter. According to her website, the extra ingredient “yields a perfectly golden brown crust every time”.
It added: “Whether you eat the sandwich on its own or pair it with a bowl of creamy tomato soup, we promise you’ll never go back to using just butter again.”
However, the entrepreneur doesn’t completely get rid of the butter. Instead, she recommended mixing mayonaisse into softened butter and spreading it on the outside of both slices of bread, which “is an easy instant upgrade”.
According to the website, mayonnaise helps create a maillard reaction, a chemical reaction when food is heated that helps develop the brown colour, complex flavors and crunchy texture.
It also has a higher smoke point than butter, so adding mayonnaise into the mixture helps ensure that the bread turns golden brown without burning.
In response to the Instagram post of the ingredient hack, many home cooks agreed with Martha Stewart.
One concurred: “Mayo makes the BEST grilled cheese, makes it so creamy, and you can’t taste it. Does the same for mashed potatoes.”
Another added: “I’ve always used mayo on my grilled cheese sands, my momma taught me well!”
One cook suggested a slightly different approach, saying: “Try some Parmesan cheese mixed into the butter for the outside of the sandwich. It’s the best!”