Explainers

How to make perfect cheese on toast

How do the experts approach that winter essential, cheese on toast?

By Maya Kerthyasa
How do the experts approach that winter essential, cheese on toast?
"We think you can use any cheese you like," says Jamie Nimmo of The Stinking Bishops in Sydney's Newtown when we grill him about the best cheese for toasties. Nimmo and Kieran Day offer 30-plus cheeses at their eatery-shop and they reckon most of them would perform pretty well under a bit of heat. "It's about how you handle the flavour profile and what you match it to," he says. "You can't just whack tomato jam and blue cheese together. It's not going to work."
Hard examples such as Gouda and Manchego, he says, are "great classic toasting cheeses". Softer cheeses such as Morbier offer maximum pungency, while Tilsit and Gruyère (the cheese they use in their Mr Crispy sandwich) are your go-to choices for stringier results. GT's cheese man, Will Studd, on the other hand, doesn't see all cheeses as equal. He counts farmhouse cheddar, Marcel Petite Comté, raclette, Gruyère and mould-ripened chèvre among his favourites, but suggests steering clear of blue cheese and fromage de Meaux. "It melts away leaving just the rind scraps," he says, "which is not so nice."
The Stinking Bishops, Shop 5/63-71 Enmore Rd, Newtown, NSW, (02) 9007 7754.
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  • undefined: Maya Kerthyasa