Grilled Cheese of the Week: The Brick’s The Trick
The Brick’s the Trick - Recipe by Michael Davidson
Hello America!
The next stop on our culinary tour of Grilled Cheese Invitational categories brings us to the “Missionary” category. Like the “Love, American Style” category, a Missionary can only contain bread, butter and cheese, but ANY type of bread, butter or cheese. It just can’t contain additional ingredients like bacon or a wristwatch.
For our winning example of a Missionary, we have Michael Davidson’s infamous “The Brick’s The Trick” sandwich, which ingeniously combines bread, butter and cheese with construction materials to achieve victory.
Michael first won the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Grilled Cheese Invitational in 2009 and then went on to win the 2009 National Grilled Cheese Invitational. He has since gone on to win 2nd place in last year’s event and he’s always looking forward to pleasing people with award winning grilled cheese.
When asked about his unorthodox cooking technique he said,“Using the brick definitely gives them more of a pressed look, guaranteed cooking throughout the sandwich and some cheese, mozzarella mostly, oozing out and getting burned in the process, adding another layer of flavor.That and it’s recession-proof (they are in your backyard) and Ronco-esque (just set it and forget it!).”
The Brick’s the Trick Recipe
by Michael Davidson
Ingredients:
2 Slices of Acme Bread Pain Au Levain (or a great quality local Sourdough bread)
2 Slices of Tillamook Sharp Cheddar
2 Slices of Aged 3-year Cheddar
6 Thin Slices of Fresh Cow’s Milk Mozzarella
2 Tbs. Spring Hill Farm’s European Style Salted Butter
1 Tin-Foiled Wrapped Brick (Heat-treated and freshly wrapped)
Instructions:
Slice the bread pretty thick (between 1-1.5 inches) as it ends up getting pressed down a lot while cooking.
Cut the cheddar cheeses into about quarter inch pieces and thin slices of mozzarella.
When filling the sandwich, sandwich the layers of mozzarella on the outside and the cheddar in between them, about 6 pieces of mozzarella (3 on each side of bread) and 2-3 pieces of each of the cheddars (depending on thickness and size).
The Brick’s the Trick - Recipe by Michael Davidson
Add a tablespoon of butter to a pan on a medium to medium-low heat.
The Brick’s the Trick - Recipe by Michael Davidson
Once melted, place the sandwich in the pan and move the sandwich around inside the pan, collecting up all the butter.
The Brick’s the Trick - Recipe by Michael Davidson
Place the brick on top of the sandwich and let cook for around 4-5 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure it’s cooking evenly.
The Brick’s the Trick - Recipe by Michael Davidson
Remove the sandwich from the pan and add an additional tablespoon of butter, repeating the butter absorption process with the other side of the sandwich.
Place the brick on top and let cook for an additional 4-5 minutes.
After this you should be left with a golden brown, slightly oozing, very satisfying sandwich that on average gets about 1 to 2 “This is the best grilled cheese I have ever had” comments per event.
When completed, unwrap brick and return it to your patio.
-Blog written by Tim Walker, Founder and Chief Instigator of the Grilled Cheese Invitational
April 14th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
I thought we couldn’t bring any outside equipment into the competition this year! Like bricks.
April 20th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Hey Chef Cam! This recipe is from a few years ago – I’d check the rules section of http://www.grilledcheeseinvitational.com to see what this year’s rules are. Thanks!
-Tara of the Tillamook Team
April 26th, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Chef Cam….as you might have found out. My brick and his trick have caught on and are very much part of the grilling game.
Btw, this recipe one yet another trophy taking 1st place in Missionary and 3rd place in Love, American!
- Grilled Cheese Guy
April 27th, 2011 at 10:52 am
Congrats, Grilled Cheese Guy! Wish I could have tried your sandwich at GCI!
-Tara of the Tillamook Team
May 5th, 2012 at 9:47 am
YUMMY !!! How do I heat treat the brick?
ruth
May 7th, 2012 at 8:59 am
Hi Ruth, thanks for your comment! Most bricks are already heat treated when you get them, so you just need to make sure it’s wrapped well with the tin-foil!
~ Katy of the Tillamook Team