DuPont sponsored a contest in 2004 to search for the Greatest Grilled Cheese Sandwich in America. The overall winner was Ashley Berman of Coral Springs, Florida with her creation The Caribbean Grill. The sandwich featured mango salsa, curry powder, swiss, and honey mustard on fresh Italian bread. There were some pretty other amazing winners like the regionally inspired Dairyland Cheddar Cranapple Grill and the culturally influenced Queso Con Verde.
Facts about Grilled Cheese Sandwiches:
- The most common extra ingredient to add to a grilled cheese is tomato, followed by bacon, potato chips, pickles, and ham
- Americans make 2.2 billion grilled cheese sandwiches at home each year
- The average American eats 8.4 grilled cheese sandwiches a year
- The grilled cheese got its start during the Great Depression as a way to feed families and entertain on a budget
- Canadians dip them in Ketchup
Damn, I’m going to have to check that out. A large part of my life is based around sandwiches. In fact my main motivation to move 2,000 miles was that my new house came with a sandwich maker (just kidding dear). Anyway, Canadians seem to like their ketchup. When I was recently in Canada I learned that ketchup flavored potato chips are pretty popular there. I guess it’s not that weird. I dip fries in ketchup and they’re similar to potato chips. I also dip grilled cheese sandwiches in tomato soup which isn’t worlds apart from ketchup.
The thing is, grilled cheese sandwiches are good, but they aren’t real sandwiches they are a sandwich minus it’s main ingredients. That’s why I somewhat dispute #1 on the list; it’s really dependent on what is considered an extra ingredient. I had a cheeseburger yesterday and a tuna melt last week. They both could be considered “cheese sandwiches” with extra ingredients, then again I wrote this before reading the article so maybe that’s addressed. 2.2B/8.4= 261.9M people, I guess the people at dupont decided that 30-40m of our peeps aren’t real merkins.