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The grilled cheese: simple, gooey, delicious. A cheesemonger, a food scientist, and a seasoned chef will attempt to create the ultimate version of this classic sandwich. Their competition? Three hilarious kids. Who will win?
Kids Vs. Science is a new show from Mental Floss where we assemble a team of experts to take on a simple childhood activity, and of course, put them head-to-head against a group of kids. Will the superteam of professionals be able to pool their knowledge together to make something extraordinary, or will the living balls of energy that are human children take the crown?
In this episode, the two teams will take on a culinary classic: the grilled cheese. Will they stick with a familiar recipe, or try to wow the taste buds with something new and creative? May the best team win.
EXPERTS:
Carol Johnson, Monger's Palate
https://www.mongerspalate.com/
Dave Arnold, Museum of Food and Drink
https://www.mofad.org/
Frank Proto, Institute of Culinary Education
https://www.ice.edu/
KIDS:
Jonah
Nairobi
Micah
& a special thank you to Institute of Culinary Education, and our three judges, Rick, Lexi, and Sean
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0:00
Grilled cheese should be crunchy
0:02
Cheese, I guess. Creamy in the middle. If I'm feeling in a good mood, I will put a slice of tomato in it
0:08
I'm really into stretch. No crust. It's all about crust. Just a little bit salty
0:13
Herbs. People use bread that the cheese leaks through, and then the..
0:18
The grilled cheese, a culinary staple of childhood. It's gooey, delicious, and best of all, simple
0:24
My recipes never ventured too far from two pieces of white bread stuck together by some American cheese
0:29
but that's all you need, right? Well, imagine the possibilities if you approach this simple sandwich
0:34
with years of culinary knowledge and expertise and attempted to make the ultimate grilled cheese
0:39
And, oh, yeah, you only have one hour, and you're going up against three awesome kids
0:43
I'm Dave. I'm the food tech expert. I build equipment for restaurants and bars
0:49
and I'm the founder of a food museum. Hi, I'm Frank, and I'm the cooking expert
0:54
Started out at culinary school, became a line cook, worked my way up through restaurants in New York
0:58
I figured the best thing I could do is try and bring up the next generation of chefs and teach here at ICE
1:03
My name is Carol, and I'm a cheese expert. I own a cheese shop. Selling cheese, lifting cheese, cutting cheese, unpacking cheese, weighing cheese, eating cheese all day
1:17
I like my grilled cheese. No crust and just cheese, I guess
1:24
I've only had three grilled cheese in my whole entire life. The two of them my grandma burnt
1:29
I'm excited, but I'm nervous because I get in there, see all these ingredients
1:34
I'm like, whoa, the only ingredients I've ever used for grilled cheese is bread and cheese
1:39
This is Kids vs. Science. Growing up, we ate tons of grilled cheese
1:44
It just happened to be one of those things that as kids we can make ourselves without burning the house down
1:49
I bake all the time. I usually do apple things. Apple crumble, apple pie, apple churro, apple puffs
1:55
I once made a cake with frosting. My brother's also really good at making cakes
2:02
Hmm, I don't know who said that, because I'm a horrible baker. You don't actually need to know any science or tech to make a great sandwich
2:09
but if you know what's going on behind the scenes, it can A, help you get results faster
2:14
and it can let you do some fun things that you wouldn't be able to do otherwise. The only thing I care about is cheese
2:19
I think that just kind of understanding what everyone thinks is a good grilled cheese is a good start
2:27
I think a good grilled cheese, crispy on the outside, soft and like stringy almost on the inside
2:33
should have some pull to it. I think there should be a mix of cheese, not just one. That just my opinion I think for me on a grilled cheese the two things are kind of how much cheese right Then whether it going to be stretchy or fully melted out And then kind of the smash level on the bread Like personally I like a high smash level
2:50
You know what I mean? I push really hard. I think it should be an all-over crust of sear with butter
2:56
Butter is always the answer. See, I use mayonnaise. Oh, mayonnaise. You guys ever use mayonnaise
3:00
I use mayonnaise inside. I use mayonnaise on fish, but not on grilled cheese. No, mayonnaise on the outside of a grilled cheese instead of butter is really good
3:06
What about mayonnaise and butter? We can try both. What about, um, do we use mayonnaise? No
3:13
People like it in grilled cheese. I like a rye, but you don't want the rye with the seeds
3:17
You want, like, a rye? I mean, the kid's not going to like rye, for sure. I would go, personally, I like the more rustic Italian breads
3:24
You know? I'm all for the straight white Pullman. White Pullman, okay
3:28
I'm not against the white Pullman, because, again, if you talk about that childhood grilled cheese
3:32
it's kind of like, okay, white Pullman. White bread I think is the best because..
3:37
What about that bread? That's white bread! Why not like whole wheat
3:42
It's whole wheat. I don't know. I like Gruyere a lot. I would like Gruyere in a grilled cheese for myself
3:48
but I'm not going to give Gruyere to a kid. Yeah, because there's a little too much funk for them, right
3:52
A lot too much. So what if you had like a little bit of Gruyere grated and then more, a lot more of something else
3:58
Maybe not funky, but sharp. I talk a lot about this at the shop, when people ask for cheese that's sharp
4:04
And usually what that means to me is that it's a cheese that's made specifically to be high acid, like cheddar, to ship or travel
4:12
And what that means is it's a cheese that just doesn't melt while the pH is too high. So if you're making a grilled cheese and it's a really aged cheddar and it's too high acid, it's just not going to give you the right melt
4:21
You've got to go for like a little bit of a lower pH cheese. And then something that is like either too acidic or aged too long, the casein structure has been broken up over the long aging such that it might melt out, but it's not going to be cohesive at all
4:34
Let's see how it tastes. It has a smokiness to it. It's so good
4:41
This is our no pile and this is our yes pile. Wow. I don't think..
4:51
That's disgusting. It's sophisticated. Oh my gosh, it's so salty. Oh! Mmm
5:01
Maybe like Gouda or something like that. Do you want to say Gouda wrong? No
5:06
No, I would never say howda because I'm not. Then you're pretentious. Wow
5:12
Yeah, that's good. It's in the F file. Now let's try this
5:16
That's American. I'm not trying that. We are not using that And I don mind if some cheese leaks out and caramelizes on the pan Those crispy bits of cheese makes it something even more spectacular So you don want a completely homogenous melt like you would off of like a processed cheese
5:33
You don't want to bring like for instance like emulsifying salts and kind of make our own black cheese
5:37
No, no, no, no, we won't get any of that. We'll take 45 minutes to make an emulsified cheese
5:43
Yeah, no sodium citrate on that one. We definitely should add the smoked mozzarella
5:48
That's number one. Cut the tomatoes, like dice them, throw them in, take a little bit of our herbs and spices
5:55
Yeah, we should use the herbs we got. I heard the kids talking earlier. I got a little inside information that they wanted to put tomatoes, and they went to the garden to pick some herbs
6:03
I'm not a purist, but I don't like tomatoes in my grilled cheese
6:08
Tomato is a moisture management problem. If you roast the tomatoes and dry them a little bit and then put them in so that they don't water out your sandwich, great
6:15
I don't think they're going to do that. I don't think the herb is going to add anything that the cheese can't handle
6:23
Hey, what should I do with the herbs? Just mess them up
6:27
Yeah, just like rip them. You want me to grate something? Let's grate that
6:31
This. And we'll do a slice of the other two. Alright. Can we add the cheddar into there
6:37
Yeah. Okay, great. I think this is looking good. We also didn't talk about temperature
6:42
I feel people don't use temperature control. They use too high a temperature. Yeah. and then the bread gets too brown before you melt
6:53
Just melt it a little, and then we'll do it. I think you're right. We should press down just a little
6:58
That's Fontina Conte or all three? All three. That's all three. That's a triple threat
7:03
That is a triple threat grilled cheese sandwich. I'm a little worried that there's not enough cheese
7:08
Can I put this back on now? I'm just grating a little more. Oh, not yet, not yet, not yet
7:12
Oh. This combination of cheese is salty enough to not require salty in the bread
7:17
Didn't even consider that. Well, remember now, the mayonnaise has a little salt and a little bit of vinegar in it
7:24
Is there butter, though? We need to put a little butter on it. And then what you're going to do, flip it over with the butter on it
7:30
Should we put some of the comte on the outside? Oh, interesting
7:36
Who could do? I also think it's a little flat. Doesn't it need like a little salt or something there
7:44
I don't think it's ready yet. No, we need to put it on top, but trust me it'll be ready. Okay
7:49
So salt and black pepper on the inside? Yeah, a little bit of black pepper. Not a lot of black pepper
7:53
I don't want to freak them out. Cool. Are we great then? We're good? Yeah
7:57
I'm good. If you're good, I'm good. I'm good. I love it. Oh money money All money money Boom boom
8:17
Now that our team's cheesy creations are complete, it's time to see how they taste
8:21
Our esteemed judges include a professional restaurateur, a young grilled cheese fan
8:27
and a very tall guy who we may have promised free grilled cheese to in exchange for staying late to shoot this video
8:33
So we have a grilled cheese on rye bread with fontina and cheddar in the middle
8:40
Comte on top which is caramelized. There's a little bit of mayonnaise, black pepper, and some cornichons just to kind of cut the fatness of the sandwich
8:54
Flavor's good. I'm not sure I'm getting the flavor of all three cheeses here
8:59
I wouldn't mind if the cornichons were actually in the sandwich, but pretty good sandwich
9:04
It doesn't really taste much black pepper, but this is honestly really good
9:09
Crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside, a little smoky. Today, what's inside, you have smoked mozzarella and cheddar cheese
9:19
There's a little bit of cooked tomato, as well as a mixture of herbs that we have harvested from the garden over there
9:26
Thank you, ICE. Everything on there is edible, including that pepper stuffed with our mixture that is not as much
9:33
A raw mixture. So I like how they didn't put just cheese and they added some other stuff
9:43
I think I want more cheese in this. The hit of tomato inside was a good move
9:48
Over and above, I think it's pretty tasty. I'm going to have to go with the expert spilled cheese
9:56
Purely textured. it was cooked better. Crispy on the outside, goo on the inside, enough cheese
10:02
The expert cheese was cooked better. I thought it lacked some acidity. I'm going to have to give it to the challenger
10:12
The thing that I like about the first one was it's gooey, which is what I liked about it
10:18
The thing that I liked about this one, the detail was amazing
10:22
But what I also liked is that they added some more stuff to the sandwich. Like they didn't just put cheese, they added like some tomatoes
10:28
Give it to them. Yes! Great job, guys. Great job. Congrats. Congrats. Congratulations
10:38
There we go. Congratulations. I want a rematch. Congratulations. One of these days we need a rematch. No, we'll never get a one again
10:43
What are we making? I think next time we'll do like pizza or something. Ooh
10:47
Ooh, we're making a pizza. We'll be back
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