New England Style Grilled Cheese

Put a New England spin on America’s classic sandwich, the grilled cheese! Infuse flavors of apple and maple in your next grilled cheese with these popular local products from New Hampshire and Vermont. A food tradition with British roots, New Englanders are known for enjoying cheese on their apple pie. I simply like to wrap a slice of cheese around my apple wedge–no baking or melting needed! Maple is an obvious choice to pair with bread and cheese for Granite Staters and Vermonters alike.

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History of Grilled Cheese

Grilled cheese gained popularity in America during the 1920s and 1930s. Wonder Bread and American Cheese made for a low-cost meal choice, the cheese dream, which is a single slice of bread toasted and topped with cheese. Add another slice of bread, et voila! You have a sandwich. Not just any sandwich, but a comforting, sustaining meal for the lunch bag or the dinner table, paired with soup, or chips and a pickle.

New England Flavors

Vermont’s Best Cheddar

First thing’s first. The cheese. With so many amazing cheeses produced right here in Vermont, such as Cabot, Grafton Village, Jasper Hill, Shelburne Farms, Vermont Farmstead and more, local-inspired variations of the grilled cheese are endless. I personally prefer Vermont Farmstead’s Alehouse Cheddar or Grafton Village Cheese Company’s Truffle Cheddar best. You can find many of these cheeses at The Vermont Country store, one of the best country stores in Vermont on my list! Pair it with a pint of Harpoon IPA and you are literally golden.

Slice of Apple

In the same way that New Englanders like to top their apple pie with a slice of fine Vermont cheddar, we can stuff our grilled cheese with crisp, juicy apple slices. Head to your nearest orchard in the fall, or spread on some Sidehill Farms Apple Pie Jam, Blake Hill Preserve’s Apple Maple Butter or any of their jams intended for pairing with cheese .

Infuse With Maple

Perhaps this should be first up on the list for creating your next New England inspired grilled cheese. I can think of at least three different ways to incorporate Vermont or New Hampshire maple into your grilled cheese:

• Add a layer of maple butter to dairy butter on the toast. The sugar adds a caramelization that will look and taste extra indulgent. I love the maple butter from Mac’s Maple in Plainfield, New Hampshire.
• Drizzle maple syrup over the top! Or in between. Or go ahead and simply dredge your bread in this wonderful stuff. I enjoy a dark amber grade maple syrup. It’s rich with maple flavor, but any grade works well. I grabbed mine from Mac’s, but you can get fancy with Runamok’s glitter syrup.
• Layer with thinly sliced maple ham or maple bacon from a local smokehouse.

Homemade Slices

Make your grilled cheese gourmet by sandwiching your fillings between one of the many varieties of artisan bread from King Arthur. Whether sourdough, classic, crusty white, or jalapeño cheddar, don’t skimp on the ingredient that holds it all together. If you can’t make it in to King Arthur to pick up a loaf, you can grab a mix to make yourself! I recently baked up a loaf of the Alaskan Sourdough and it was fantastic with savory truffle cheddar and a bit of apple butter.

Making the Grilled Cheese

Making a grilled cheese is quite simple, but it’s easy to burn the bread while achieving the melt. The trick for cooking on the stovetop is to use a medium setting and a lid, trapping in the heat to melt the cheese. Or, you can follow a simple, fool-proof way to make a perfectly golden grilled cheese in the air fryer. I discovered this technique while making quesadillas for a picky 7-year-old who won’t eat hers if it’s the least bit blackened.

Perfect Never-Burn Grilled Cheese in the Air Fryer

1. Butter the bread
2. Layer your fillings
3. Heat in microwave just until cheese melts (<1 minute)
4. Place in the air fryer at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Flip once halfway through.