Cheap and easy for me. (Purists stop reading, as I'll be mentioning orange colored oil slices)
Ingredients:
1) Bread. Standard white or wheat bread.
2) Margarine
3) Kraft Cheese Slices
Grab a non-stick pan larger than the bread and a lid smaller than the pan, but large enough to cover the bread. Put the pan on low heat and let it start warming up. Now, cover one side of each piece of bread with the margarine, just enough to cover the whole side, to the edges. Unwrap two cheese slices.
Lay one piece of bread in the pan butter side down (this is key). Add the two cheese slices and the second piece of bread butter side up!! Now cover with the lid.
Let it sit for a few moments. One side is done when you can slide a spatula under it. Flip it, cover it and let the other side cook. Your choice on how toasted you want the bread to be.
The butter keeps it from scorching and makes it easier to flip. The lid holds in the heat so the cheese melts before the bread starts to burn.
Once you've got that down, you can start playing with different breads, real butter, different cheeses, meats, veggies, etc. Keep in mind the thicker the cheese, the longer to melt, so you'll need to keep an eye on it and keep it covered.
If it's cold outside, don't forget the tomato soup to go with it.
-Rob
mtn
MegaDork
9/15/15 10:17 a.m.
Jerry wrote:
Hm, already see I'm using too high of heat. And wheat bread because I believe it's healthier and it definitely lasts longer in the cupboard than white.
Thanks for the input, I seem to have struck a nerve here! 
Don't use wheat bread on a grilled cheese. Think about this. Cheese, and Butter are the other two ingredients--unless you're eating these every day, do it right. And if you are eating them everyday, the wheat bread isn't going to stop the buildup in your arteries.
Wheat bread kills a grilled cheese.
Sourdough>Italian>Texas Toast>Wonderbread>>>>>>>>.........>>>>>>wheat bread
Rye can be slotted in somewhere within the top three, but that is a different discussion.
BTerj
New Reader
9/15/15 10:29 a.m.
Best bread and cheese you can afford ( I mix a good cheddar with a good american cheese). Butter on bread, complete coverage but not alot. Medium heat, put in pan and cover with a plate (my mom tought me) to trap heat and speed cheese melting. Check and flip when golden. Check and eat when second side golden. Drops mic, walks away.
mtn wrote:
spitfirebill wrote:
Geeze you people can make everything difficult.
All I'm going to say is never use Kraft singles. Use real cheese.
Nothing here is difficult--Adding 1-2 more ingredients to a 3 ingredient meal makes it a 4-5 ingredient meal. Still simple.
No its not, but have you seen all the variations? My wife makes a killer grilled cheese. Sliced cedar on white bread with a little butter in both sides.
bluej
SuperDork
9/15/15 10:39 a.m.
best bread for GC? Challah. end of discussion.
Replace the cheese with peanut butter. It's awesome.
In reply to Appleseed:
Peanut butter is a foul disgusting substance that isn't fit for rat food.
In reply to Nick (Not-Stig) Comstock:
then why is it always used to bait rat traps?
In reply to captdownshift:
Rats like to eat gross E36 M3?
Everyone knows that rats are connoisseurs of the highest order.
:origin()/pre02/7e2f/th/pre/f/2014/312/e/1/sophisticated_rat_by_dcyillustrations-d85oe5z.jpg)
wae
HalfDork
9/15/15 11:07 a.m.
I've got an old school (60s?) Waffle iron that has reversible plates on it - waffle pattern on one side, smooth on the other. I like to do the grilled cheese on the smooth plates so it fries both sides at once.
Mmmm, Skyline Chili. It's been 23 years since I have been in one. 
As for grilled cheese, use lots of REAL butter and use REAL cheese.
I'm further convinced Nick Hayes everything that is good. Why else would someone willingly own a Harley Davidson as his sole form of transportation?
I'm further convinced Nick hates everything that is good. Why else would someone willingly own a Harley Davidson as his sole form of transportation?
All together?
It's an entirely different kinds of flying.
I'm with Nick. Peanut butter, hell, peanut anything sucks.
Nick (Not-Stig) Comstock wrote:
In reply to Appleseed:
Peanut butter is a foul disgusting substance that isn't fit for rat food.
That is a terrible, terrible opinion. But you are welcome to it.
Joey
Home made bread (takes 5 minutes to make, what's your excuse?), and I use oil instead of butter. You have to slice the bread thin, like a store bought bread. Put both pieces of bread down on the hot (iron) skillet with cheese on one. Medium heat. Monitor the bread in the oil surface to prevent burning. When the cheese is melting, put the other piece on top and flip it a few times until it is perfect.
Another vote for (gasp) American cheese. Buy a good deli American, but don't be ashamed if you've only got Kraft or Velveeta. That's where the unctuous meltiness comes from. Use just a single-slice thickness of your American, then mix in quality cheeses for whatever your desired taste profile. (I like to mix extra-sharp cheddar with Sarvecchio Bellavitano parmesan--a.k.a "magic cheese" in my family because it's so good), but if you don't like salt bombs (what's wrong with you??) use gruyere instead. I like a nice thin-sliced homemade or deli white bread.
Melt a half tablespoon or so of butter in the pan for each sammich, spread to bread shape and drop onto it, toast on medium to medium low until cheese melts and bread is golden brown (this happens fast, so watch it), then pick up sammich, melt another half-tablespoon of butter, drop other side onto it, toast and remove.
Slice, enjoying the crunch as you do so, and devour.
Cover the pan, or put some lid around the sandwich to trap the heat. This way you heat with conduction to brown the bread, and convection to get the cheese really melty. I do this on medium-low heat (4/10).
mtn
MegaDork
9/15/15 1:16 p.m.
Marjorie Suddard wrote:
Another vote for (gasp) American cheese. Buy a good deli American, but don't be ashamed if you've only got Kraft or Velveeta. That's where the unctuous meltiness comes from. Use just a single-slice thickness of your American, then mix in quality cheeses for whatever your desired taste profile. (I like to mix extra-sharp cheddar with Sarvecchio Bellavitano parmesan--a.k.a "magic cheese" in my family because it's so good), but if you don't like salt bombs (what's wrong with you??) use gruyere instead. I like a nice thin-sliced homemade or deli white bread.
Melt a half tablespoon or so of butter in the pan for each sammich, spread to bread shape and drop onto it, toast on medium to medium low until cheese melts and bread is golden brown (this happens fast, so watch it), then pick up sammich, melt another half-tablespoon of butter, drop other side onto it, toast and remove.
Slice, enjoying the crunch as you do so, and devour.
*Whoa, Velveeta is a whole nuther animal here. Nobody is talking anything bad about Velveeta.
But American cheese only belongs on a grilled cheese if you're using wonder bread (or the generic equivalent).
Hmmm... Now I might go home and make a true white trash dinner tonight--velveeta+wonder bread grilled cheese, with some Spam or bologna on the side.*
wae wrote:
I've got an old school (60s?) Waffle iron that has reversible plates on it - waffle pattern on one side, smooth on the other. I like to do the grilled cheese on the smooth plates so it fries both sides at once.
Just for giggles recently I made grilled cheeses for the kids in the waffle iron. It was surprisingly good and they applauded the variety.
I used King Hawaiian bread and Colby jack cheese if my memory serves.
Wally
MegaDork
9/15/15 1:35 p.m.
How have I never thought of grilled peanut butter? That's the greatest thing I've heard in days.
For grilled cheese I throw a glob of butter in the pan, use white bread and deli American cheese and put a foil wrapped chunk of brick on top because for some reason my wife likes them pounded flat.
