Egg & Cheese Sandwich

Egg & Cheese Sandwich

The Egg & Cheese Sandwich a favorite of Americans across the land. McDonald’s has made it a classic with its Egg McMuffin Sandwich.

The breakfast sandwich is everyone’s favorite breakfast item. That’s right, I speak for everyone. Okay well it might not be EVERYONE’s favorite, but I would venture to say that if I put one in front of you at 7AM you wouldn’t turn it down, especially since it’s easy to eat in bed. Pancakes and syrup get sticky and no one wants to accidentally drip runny egg yolk on their mattress.

There is nothing more satisfying for breakfast than a cheesy egg sandwich with all its gooey goodness. Growing up, I did not like scrambled eggs. Why? They just had no flavor in my opinion, eggs by themselves unless they are sunny side up are relatively boring to me. That’s why eggs and cheese are such a natural pair. They complement each other so well, the bland nature of eggs allow them to be a vessel of tasty for the cheese.

My mom some time around the time when I was 10 or 11, she upgraded our eggs by adding deli white American cheese to the eggs. You probably gasp in disgust, deli white American? ARE YOU SERIOUS?

Folks, let me tell you something, deli white American cheese might be the most underrated of all the processed cheeses. It’s mild and has a good aftertaste and creaminess to it.

American cheese originally was white not yellow as you have come to know it. The yellowness or orange color comes from annato a seasoning that gives it that nutmeggy flavor and orange color.

Another fun fact about American cheese is that it actually isn’t technically cheese at all! It’s a processed cheese per the obligatory Wikipedia search that you will end up doing here you go:

“ American cheese can not be legally sold under the name (authentic) “cheese” in the US. Instead, federal (and even some state) laws mandate that it be labeled as “processed cheese” if simply made from combining more than one cheese,^[2] or “cheese food” if dairy ingredients such as cream, milk, skim milk, buttermilk, cheese whey, or albumin from cheese whey are added.^[3] As a result, sometimes even the word “cheese” is absent, altogether, from the product’s labeling in favor of, e.g., “American slices” or “American singles”. In the United Kingdom, packs of individually wrapped slices are labeled as “singles”,^[4] although they are commonly referred to as “cheese slices”.”

Don’t let that scare you off, Deli White American Cheese is not bad, in fact it’s useful in a mac & cheese sauce too.

Back to the eggs, my mom would melt the cheese in the eggs as she scrambled them and the eggs would just become this mass of cheesy creamy goodness. I would eat it for breakfast when I had time and it was one of the first things I learned how to make for myself when I was a young cook in the house.

If you are teaching your kids how to cook, start with eggs, it teaches you all the fundamentals of cooking I feel. Plus it’s cheap and relatively safe so they can practice a lot with them.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 Eggs

1 Slice of Deli White American Cheese *It must be Deli White American, nothing else from the American cheese spectrum will work. If you want to use a different cheese all together go ahead, but the Deli White works the best in my opinion*

2 Slices of Whole Wheat Bread (or White Bread)

2 Tbsp. Butter

Method

Spray your egg pan and then crack the eggs in the pan (I don’t really pre-whisk the eggs for this, you can if you want). Break up the eggs with your wooden spoon and then add your American cheese in bits and pieces. Now turn on your heat to a medium high or low heat, and gradually stir the eggs until bits of it start to cook. As the eggs cook, be careful not to overcook your eggs.

I like my scrambled eggs slightly runny. I think this is the best way to eat these. If you truly hate White American Cheese, you don’t have to use it, but I think it actually melts perfectly and gives the sandwich a great cheesy flavor.

Now butter your bread on the outside of the sandwich, then place the sandwich on the egg pan and brown each side. Press down with a spatula onto the sandwich you make sort of like a egg panini sandwich.

Cut in half and enjoy!