Food Holidays: April 2022: National Grilled Cheese Month

Welcome to our series sharing Food Holidays: April 2022: National Grilled Cheese Month. I don’t know about you, but I could eat the Traditional Grilled Cheese Sandwich every day and still want more of these sandwiches. If you were my mom, she would want Best Maild Hamburger Slices on the side of her Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Would you like a Grilled Cheese Sandwich? If so with or without Pickles?

National Grilled Cheese Month

The History of Grilled Cheese

If you want to be technical about it, pairing of Bread and Cheese together is something which has happened since ancient times. In fact, the ancient Romans really made a point of serving Bread and Cheese together. However, the Grilled Cheese of today is really sort of a modern concoction. And this Grilled Cheese only came about because of two very important inventions: Bread slices and modern American Cheese.

In 1911, James L. Kraft invented and popularized Processed Cheese describing it as “American Cheese.” Processed Cheese immediately became popular in the U.S because of its unique flavor and because Processed Cheese was less expensive than traditional Cheddar Cheeses that were sold in the United States. This was the most important part of the modern Grilled Cheese Sandwich but there was still something missing. Commercially available sliced Bread would still have to be invented and that didn’t occur until 1928.

In 1912, Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented a Bread slicing machine that was capable of slicing loaves of Bread one-at-a-time. Unfortunately, that Bread slicer would end up being destroyed in a fire that same year and it wouldn’t be until 1928 that Frederick Rohwedder finally had a working Bread slicer available for sale to the public. That same year, a baker in St. Louis, Mo. named Gustav Papendick purchased one of these Bread slicing machines and decided to come up with a way to package the loaves of Bread once they had been sliced. After a few trials and errors, he finally invented a way to hold the sliced Bread together so it could be wrapped. This would form the basis for mechanized wrapping machines to come.

Now, all that was needed was someone to put the sliced Bread and the processed American Cheese together which happened not long after that. While no one really knows exactly when the Grilled Cheese Sandwich was invented, the Grilled Cheese Sandwich known that by the time the Great Depression began in 1929, Grilled Cheese was already an American staple. And the Grilled Cheese Sandwich became even more popular after Wonder Bread began selling sliced Bread on a national level. Wonder Bread, had been selling Bread nationally since they were bought by Continental Baking Company in 1925, began selling their Bread sliced in 1930. This finally brought sliced Bread to the masses and helped make the Grilled Cheese Sandwich more popular.

The Grilled Cheese Sandwich was popular during the Great Depression because it was filling, delicious, easy to make and inexpensive. It’s not surprising that when World War II began, Soldiers and Sailors decided to take the Grilled Cheese Sandwich with them. This introduced Europeans to the modern Grilled Cheese Sandwich and before long it became not only an American sensation but a worldwide sensation. While the Grilled Cheese Sandwich has remained pretty much the same as it was almost 100 years ago, many people have begun to make their own versions of Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.

A funny fact about Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, however, is that while Grilled Cheese Sandwiches were popular from the Great Depression to the present, they haven’t always been called Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. They were originally called “Cheese Dream” and were served open faced. During World War II, the top piece of Bread was added. Then the sandwich was simply called “Cheese filled sandwiches.” It wouldn’t be until the 1960s that someone would dub this sandwich the Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

National Grilled Cheese Day History

Unfortunately, while the history of the Grilled Cheese Sandwich is pretty easy to trace, the history of National Grilled Cheese Day is a little bit harder to put your thumb on. However, it’s been speculated that National Grilled Cheese Day began sometime during the late 1990s.

Grilled Cheese Facts

• There was a Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich which was sold on eBay in 2004 for $28,000.
• in 2006, Joey Chestnut ate 47 Grilled Cheese Sandwiches to set a new world’s record
• American, Provolone, Cheddar and Mozzarella are popular Cheeses used when creating a Grilled Cheese Sandwich.
• Did you know the average Grilled Cheese is just under 300 calories?

Celebrating National Grilled Cheese Day

All you really need to do to celebrate National Grilled Cheese Day is to grill up your favorite version of this iconic sandwich. You can either grill the traditional version or spice the sandwich up with Bacon, Pineapple, Pepperoni, Pickles and Mayonnaise. After all, this Grilled Cheese Sandwich is not only rooted in history but is a flexible recipe that can be molded to suit the person eating it.

Another way to celebrate National Grilled Cheese Day is by throwing a Grilled Cheese party. Prepare Grilled Cheese Sandwiches for your friends. Or you can invite each person to bring their own version of the Grilled Sheese Sandwich.

Thank you,

Glenda, Charlie and David Cates