Bread Reslicer

I've been contemplating the grilled cheese sandwich quite a bit of late. This simple concoction made of nothing more than bread, cheese (extra sharp white cheddar, please), and butter provides a joy much greater than the sum of its parts. (I must confess that my recent idea entitled “Combat Spatula” was conceived while standing over a hot skillet with said implement—of the non-militarized sort—in hand.) Heated just long enough to brown both sides of the bread and thoroughly melt the cheese, then sliced (diagonally, of course) and served with your choice of cold beverage, this simple foodstuff truly constitutes one of the much renowned simple pleasures of life.

And yet, there is room for improvement. I once heard it stated that “cheese is the best part of anything with cheese in it”, and since first encountering that axiom I've been given no cause to doubt it. And while it is indeed the cheese that makes the sandwich, the bread's only purpose is, in fact, to make it a sandwich—a subtle, but important distinction. It thus occurs to me that the weak point in the sandwich, if not the cheese, must be the bread (for surely it can't be the butter, either!)

A close examination of the cross section of a prepared sandwich bears this out. The side of the bread facing the pan is neatly browned, whereas the opposite side (the one facing the cheese) is indistinguishable from bread freshly removed from the package (apart from being covered with molten cheese). The thermal transfer characteristics of bread are therefore such that the heat required to brown the slice completely is rapidly dissipated across the thickness of the bread, meaning a thinner slice would likely brown more evenly. Also, given my chosen method of applying the butter, which is to melt it into the pan and allow the bread to soak it up, it is apparent that the butter is only drawn up about halfway through the bread. The conclusion, therefore, is that the ideal slice of bread for making a grilled cheese sandwich would be about half as thick as the average store-bought slice.

I suppose one could seek out and purchase bread that's pre-sliced into thinner pieces, but unfortunately not all breads are created equal. Having carefully selected my brand and variety of bread for its flavor, texture, color, aroma, and mouthfeel, I'm loathe to go to that extreme to alleviate the problem. This brings us to the idea, which is quite simple, really: A device that folds up to hold a single slice of bread in place. Once the adjustable sides are positioned correctly, a sharp knife is drawn through a slit to neatly cleave your slice in twain. In addition to the culinary advantages a half-thickness slice would provide, it would effectively double your loaf's sandwich potential, which always seems to expire long before the last of the cheese is consumed. As a side benefit, it would also nearly double the ratio of protein and fat to carbohydrates, making the sandwich more suitable for diabetics and people on certain diets.