Making grilled cheese on a non-stick pan or griddle is easy enough, but some people just want everything to be the easiest way possible. If you’re one of those and grilled cheese is a staple part of your diet, then you might be interested in the Nostalgia Grilled Cheese Toaster.
A specialty appliance for making grilled cheese, the countertop contraption is, basically, a toaster that’s been modified to take a pair of cheese sandwiches instead. No more preheating the oven, toasting the sandwich one side at a time on a pan, or whatever other things you used to do to make grilled cheese – just cook them the same way you toast your bread in the morning and you’ll be ready to eat in no time.
The Nostalgia Grilled Cheese Toaster looks like any regular toaster, albeit with openings sized to hold two slices of bread each. Instead of dropping your bread into the chambers, each one comes with a toasting basket designed to keep a sandwich in place, ensuring it never touches the heating elements on the appliance to avoid burning. And since this is, basically, just a toaster with wider slots, you can also use it to make regular toast, so it can serve as a functional replacement for your toaster.
To use, start by pre-heating the toaster to cut down on cooking time before you start making your sandwiches. Once that’s done, simply load your two slices of buttered bread with cheese in the middle onto one of the baskets, place it inside the slot, and set the heat level. It comes with seven heat settings, so you can experiment to find which one you like best, whether you prefer a mild toast, slightly melted cheese, or nearly-burnt bread with liquid cheese dripping all over.
The Nostalgia Grilled Cheese Toaster also comes with a defrost function, so we’re guessing you can use it to defrost any stuff you just took out of the freezer. You know, like a few slices of bacon or a pork chop or whatever else can fit in the toasting basket. We don’t know if you can actually use this to cook meats and vegetables, too, but the inclusion of the basket does remind me of the Ronco Ready Grill, a grilling countertop appliance clad in a toaster-like design. I mean, it’s probably worth trying.
A removable tray at the bottom allows you to quickly get rid of crumbs, although you’ll probably have to scrape off any melted cheese that ends up dripping on there during toasting. Yeah, we’re guessing this will be messy. You’ll probably also want to check the bottom of the baskets occasionally for the same melted drippings just to make sure everything stays sanitary in your kitchen. According to Nostalgia, both the toaster housing and the basket handles are designed to stay cool to the touch the whole time, so there will be no untoward kitchen accidents unless you purposely touch the heating elements inside.
The Nostalgia Grilled Cheese Toaster is available now.
- Make 2 grilled cheese sandwiches in just minutes