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Grilled cheese sandwiches are comforting and nostalgic. Biting down on crisped bread, hearing the crunch before the toast starts to dissolve on our tongue and pulling a bite away to have strings of melted cheese stretch toward our lips make this a favorite comfort food for many.

April is National Grilled Cheese Month: an entire four weeks devoted to the American classic that, according to FoodTimeline.org, most likely emerged in the 1920s when sliced bread and American cheese became affordable and available in grocery stores. Grilled cheese also proves filling, and during World War II this tasty treat appeared in Navy ship kitchens. Of course, other countries have their tasty versions, but in America the sandwich worthy of a month-long party belongs to our own melty, chewy, gooey cheese trapped between two slices of sticky white bread drenched in warm butter and melted to perfection.

To commemorate this national holiday you could have a grilled cheese eating contest, eat a different kind of grilled cheese sandwich every day of the month, or make a gourmet grilled cheese and pair it with an American beer.

The following sandwich recipe is from cheese expert and author Laura Werlin’s book, Great Grilled Cheese. I love to wash down this runny, warm sandwich with a cold Ellie’s Brown Ale from Avery Brewing Company in Colorado. The beer’s caramel, coffee and molasses notes work perfectly with the salty fried egg while the chocolate undertones enhance the funky cheese. The recipe appears as it does in the book, courtesy of Werlin, with slightly modified directions and my addition of applewood smoked bacon. Laura also wrote the recently released Grilled Cheese Please. I highly encourage adding both to your cookbook collection.

Cheesy Gashouse Egg Sandwich

Courtesy of Laura Werlin

(Makes four sandwiches)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons salted butter, at room temperature (I like to use Vermont Butter & Creamery’s cultured butter with sea salt crystals)

8 slices white bread 1/4 inch thick

6 ounces Monterey Jack, Swiss, or Gruyère coarsely grated

4 large eggs

1 package applewood smoked bacon (Niman Ranch Dry Cured, Applewood Smoked is my favorite)

Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. In a medium skillet over low heat, fry the bacon until the fat renders and the bacon turns to the consistency you prefer. Then place on a paper towel to cool.

2. Butter one side of each slice of bread and place butter side down on workspace. Cut a 2” diameter hole in the center using a knife or glass rim.

3. Press the grated cheese onto four slices around the hole, add desired amount of bacon and place the remaining four slices of bread on top, buttered side up.

4. Heat a large nonstick skillet over a medium to low heat for 2 minutes.

5. Put the sandwiches in the skillet, cover, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes (until the underside turns golden brown).

6. Turn the sandwiches and quickly separate the egg yolks from the whites.

7. Pour the yolk into the hole in the bread and then pour the egg white over the top of the sandwich.

8. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

9. Cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes until the undersides turn golden brown and the yolks have begun to set. Do not worry that the egg whites are not cooked through.

10. Turn the sandwiches again and cook for 1 to 3 minutes until the eggs cook to your liking.

11. Cut the sandwiches and serve while hot.

Helpful Hints from Laura Werlin’s Great Grilled Cheese:

• Wheat or egg breads make great substitutes to white bread.

• Using grated instead of sliced cheese aids in even melting which in turns helps you not burn the bread.

• Grating cheese cold makes the job easier and letting it come to room temperature before cooking helps it melt evenly.

• You will notice this recipe calls for the use of a nonstick skillet and to cover the sandwich while cooking. Both are important to the cooking process. Just trust Laura, she has eaten a lot of grilled cheese!

Photos: Dean Hurst