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Martha Stewart’s Secret Ingredient for Grilled Cheese Is Better Than Butter

Say goodbye to accidentally scorching these cheesy sandwiches.

A grilled cheese with mayo will change the way you think about making this comfort food staple. Trust us, one bite and you won’t be able to go back to just bread, butter, and cheese. In fact, you may want to ditch the butter entirely.

By now, most of us think we know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich. We’ve picked out our preferred bread, perfected the right blend of cheeses, and memorized the best sweet and savory add-ins. But it turns out the one ingredient we haven’t paid much attention to — butter — is secretly ruining our toasty cheese sandwiches. 

It’s common for butter to burn during the cooking process, which can affect the taste of your bread and prevents you from getting that golden-brown crust. Plus, spreading butter is difficult if you’re trying to slather it on a soft bread, like a brioche, unless you warm it up first (and who has time for that?!). On the other hand, mayo is mostly oil, so it has a higher smoke point than butter and is less likely to burn your bread. It’s also easy to spread straight from the jar. 

Adding mayo to your grilled cheese will still give it the creaminess you expect from butter. But if you’re still not convinced, perhaps Martha Stewart’s endorsement of grilled cheese with mayo will persuade you. The cooking star shared a video of her favorite grilled cheese recipe, and it included a generous slather of mayonnaise. (She ends up using butter too, but you may find your sandwich doesn’t need any.) Stewart’s fixin’s of choice are skinless tomatoes, sweet hot pickles, a smear of Dijon mustard, and bacon. Yum!

Before you dash off to your kitchen, we have one more suggestion: grate your cheese first. Then sprinkle it on the mayo-smeared side of the bread and toss it in the pan. The shredded cheese will melt in the frying pan and add a savory crispy shell, like a giant parmesan crisp. Now if you’ll excuse us. We have some grilled cheeses to make. 

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