Is there anything finer for making cheese on toast than an eye level grill?

[editor]

Modern trends have condemned these fine machines to a mere niche market now but I contend there is nothing finer for the creating of, and monitoring of, cheese on toast, or, indeed, straight toast.

Why stoop down to a dark, waist-level subterranean grill when you can observe the effects of heat on cheese at a comfortable viewing position?

Sadly, my cooker with an eye level grill was forcibly removed by health and safety fascists some years ago, making the creation of a perfect cheese on toast something akin ti a game f Russian Roulette. Fail to remain crouched to watch the progress of the toastie and - bam - it's turned to fucking charcoal.

What's your thoughts, urban chefs?

 

[A380]

Modern trends have condemned these fine machines to a mere niche market now but I contend there is nothing finer for the creating of, and monitoring of, cheese on toast, or, indeed, straight toast.

Why stoop down to a dark, waist-level subterranean grill when you can observe the effects of heat on cheese at a comfortable viewing position?

Sadly, my cooker with an eye level grill was forcibly removed by health and safety fascists some years ago, making the creation of a perfect cheese on toast something akin ti a game f Russian Roulette. Fail to remain crouched to watch the progress of the toastie and - bam - it's turned to fucking charcoal.

What's your thoughts, urban chefs?

View attachment 458893

Has teuchter stolen your log on Editor?

 

[Elpenor]

Thought you were vegan

 

[starfish]

Have you tried making one in an air fryer?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

my electric cooker (came with the flat and wasn't new when i moved in 20+ years ago) had an eye level grill, but it doesn't work any more. i managed to find and fit a replacement element and it still doesn't work



mum-tat has a gas one that looks very similar to the picture in opening post. down-side to it is replacing the battery that lights the gas - it's awkward for me to do, and impossible for her

 

[angusmcfangus]

Ah a thing of beauty was the eye level grill.
Used to live in a flat in North finchley that had a bath in the kitchen.
You could perfectly crisp up your bacon whilst rinsing your hair.

 

[moomoo]

I loved my oven with the eye level grill. It was the best oven I’ve ever had.

 

[newme]

Thought about a chair?

 

[Aladdin]

Used to use something like this when I worked in a little coffee shop years ago. People asked for grilled cheese on toast. Came in handy for toasties too..toasties with soft middles and well toasted outsides. Unsquashed.

https://www.nisbets.ie/nisbets-essentials-toaster-grill/ct917

 

[A380]

My mum and dad had an eye level grill that had an electric motor gizmo for turning skewers. It would do one big thing or six little ones. Can’t remember ever actually using it…

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I'd only have an eye-level grill if I was 2 foot tall.

I've not used the oven grill for as long as I can remember though.

 

[Elpenor]

Don’t think I’ve ever used one; perhaps we had one when I was a kid

Do think ovens are better off being eye level though, but rarely use mine anyway and wouldn’t even know how it works as a grill

 

[Silas Loom]

Elevated range cooker with library steps is the best solution.

 

[Boudicca]

My mother moved house a few years back and had been yearning for an eye level grill ever since. I took her to the cooker shop but they could only show her one in a catalogue for £400.

Now I'm a bit of a Marketplace addict and so asked her 'Would you consider a secondhand one?'

A few days later I found someone selling one left in a house they had bought and were renovating. £40 and hardly used.

 

[Monte]

My mum and dad had an eye level grill that had an electric motor gizmo for turning skewers. It would do one big thing or six little ones. Can’t remember ever actually using it…

We had one of those in the mid '70s. I think it was used once to do a rotisserie chicken and then never used again. Probably made a right mess with all the juices spitting all over the place.
More used was the battery operated spit for using on the barbeque.

 

[Fez909]

grilled cheese on toast

I know it's a contentious topic, but to me, grilled cheese is when you basically dry fry it. I don't think you can do 'grilled cheese' as the Americans call it in an actual grill, as you need to be able to apply pressure while it's 'grilling'

I made a thread about it a year or so back. Some good bread/cheese chat on there

 

[petee]

my toast-r-oven is atop the refrigerator and is exactly eye-level.

 

[ouirdeaux]

I don't think you can do 'grilled cheese' as the Americans call it in an actual grill

I grew up in NYC, and that's what it was to me. Perhaps things have changed, or it's done differently elsewhere, or my family was just weird.

I use a George Foreman grill nowadays for that sort of thing. Obviously it won't work if you want it open top.

 

[danny la rouge]

Thought you were vegan

I’m maybe not up to date, but as far as I was aware editor is not vegan. He’s, like me, a vegan-leaning vegetarian. And has said so several times to my knowledge.

But to answer the thread, no, there’s nothing better for making cheese on toast. That’s why I usually go for my toastie-panini maker nowadays. A hip-level grill is just bizarre.

And yes, I’ve tried it in the air fryer. Once.

 

[nottsgirl]

I’m maybe not up to date, but as far as I was aware editor is not vegan. He’s, like me, a vegan-leaning vegetarian. And has said so several times to my knowledge.

But to answer the thread, no, there’s nothing better for making cheese on toast. That’s why I usually go for my toastie-panini maker nowadays. A hip-level grill is just bizarre.

And yes, I’ve tried it in the air fryer. Once.

Was going to avoid mentioning the air fryer but now you have, I saved a recipes yesterday for cheese toastie in the air fryer.

 

[Elpenor]

I’m maybe not up to date, but as far as I was aware editor is not vegan. He’s, like me, a vegan-leaning vegetarian. And has said so several times to my knowledge.

But to answer the thread, no, there’s nothing better for making cheese on toast. That’s why I usually go for my toastie-panini maker nowadays. A hip-level grill is just bizarre.

And yes, I’ve tried it in the air fryer. Once.

Ah ok I must have missed that.

 

[Idaho]

Reminds me of visiting my grandmother. At home we'd have brown bread toasted in a toaster with margarine At her's we had white sliced, toasted in an eye level gas grill with butter

 

[keybored]

I know it's a contentious topic, but to me, grilled cheese is when you basically dry fry it. I don't think you can do 'grilled cheese' as the Americans call it in an actual grill, as you need to be able to apply pressure while it's 'grilling'

I made a thread about it a year or so back. Some good bread/cheese chat on there

Not seen your thread before but I do mine in a dry frying pan with mayonnaise on the outside. Except I call it a fried sandwich. It's way better than using a sandwich toaster (not owned one in ages) for the reasons you give in the thread.

We have an air fryer but I don't believe using that could possibly improve upon the simple pleasure of the fried sandwich, so I've never tried.

The only downside is a certain smoke is given off that's invisible to the human eye but which the smoke detectors seem particularly sensitive to, alerting the dogs and meaning I have to then share my delicious sandwich with them.

 

[freshapple]

Used to use something like this when I worked in a little coffee shop years ago. People asked for grilled cheese on toast. Came in handy for toasties too..toasties with soft middles and well toasted outsides. Unsquashed.

https://www.nisbets.ie/nisbets-essentials-toaster-grill/ct917

View attachment 458897

Put this on a shelf

 

[Epona]

Don’t think I’ve ever used one; perhaps we had one when I was a kid

Do think ovens are better off being eye level though, but rarely use mine anyway and wouldn’t even know how it works as a grill

I have a problem with my freestanding oven in that I have to bend down to look in it, and to retrieve sometimes heavy or very full and always hot dishes from it.

I think the optimum arrangement is for them to be fitted in a unit (you know, the sort of thing that ovens are installed into in some fitted kitchens so they are higher up) so that you have the main oven about waist height and the small oven/grill just below eye height, that way it's safer and less strain to be removing heavy hot dishes from them.

I do quite like the aesthetic of a massive freestanding 6/7 hob 4 oven range style modern cooker though. (And yes I would use all of those! I do a lot of cooking and currently find myself juggling how to do 8 things in 2 ovens and with only 2 working hobs on the oven and a single induction hob. I have no doubt that I would use multiple hobs and ovens at the same time frequently enough to make a really big fuck off cooker worthwhile. And sometimes still use the air fryer when I am cooking something small).

 

[moochedit]

Has teuchter stolen your log on Editor?

My first thought too

 

[editor]

Thought you were vegan

Really not sure why you're bringing up my personal dietary preferences here.

 

[editor]

Has teuchter stolen your log on Editor?

I think it's a legitimate topic for debate. I'm just miffed that my old cooker got taken away by The Man and the one I've got now is fucking useless for grilling purposes.

 

[Elpenor]

Really not sure why you're bringing up my personal dietary preferences here.

Only because you’ve been vocal about your feelings about the dairy and meat industries across numerous threads so had assumed you were

Anyway, you do you, enjoy your cheese on toast

 

[Epona]

Nah I think editor has been quite detailed in the suburban forum about his disappointment in non-dairy cheese - something a lot of us share tbh. Maybe one day it will happen and there'll be a great alternative (I'm not even vegetarian, but N has a lactose issue)

But it's not something anyone would know unless they were regularly looking at those threads about non-dairy alternatives. So no harm no foul or whatever the saying is.