Toum Grilled Cheese  Recipe (2024)

> Prepare the sandwich: Divide the cheese evenly between the two slices of bread, tearing one piece in half to split it.May i suggest you change this to, "tearing one slice in half"? I had to read this sentence three times before i realized "piece" was referring to piece of cheese; my initial assumption was that the bread was the antecedent!

Olive oil can get bitter when processed in a blender or food processor. I process the garlic with coarse kosher salt and a little lemon juice first, to tame the bite a bit, then alternate with vegetable oil, lemon juice, and ice water. Nice and fluffy.

For a shortcut, if you are near a Trader Joe's they have a perfectly serviceable toum on the refrigerated section called Garlic Spread and Dip with the same ingredients.

This, like many NYT recipes I've made verbatim, has problems. Too many times I've had to go back a second time and make significant adjustments to amounts and cooking times to get the proper result. In this case with the toum, DO NOT simply "dump the neutral oil on top." The recipe calls for far too much oil and you will get a watery result that never fully emulsifies. Drizzle the oil a little at a time until you get the proper aioli emulsification. Made this way, it's quite delightful.

I used olive oil, but probably only needed 3/4c.to get the right consistency; at 1.5c this turned into garlic oil, not toum. Still delicious though. Next time I will add the oil slowly as I go until getting the desired aioli-like texture of toum.

I’m crazy about grilled cheesies, but toum puts it over the top. I’m definitely on this.

Trader Joe's sells a truly excellent toum (just labeled "Garlic Spread Dip" and stocked with the other refrigerated dips) that tastes fresh and homemade, if you want to skip to Step 4. I've relied on it for years.

I have made grilled cheeses with toum at my cheese shop and can confirm it definitely takes them to the next level.

So when I was taught to make toum, we would alternate a tiny bit of oil (think like with making mayo) with a spoonful of lemon juice. I'm really intrigued by the immersion blender method, though. I want to try it.

What you’re aiming for is a fluffy kinda mayonnaise like consistency. Anything that will help you get that consistency will work. The immersion blender here is a quicker way. A mini-processor probably won’t do the trick, well, I wouldn’t go that route.

I bought Trader Joe’s Garlic Spread Dip & Sourdough Bread. Let cheese get to room temp. I add fresh tomato slices, pickles between thinly sliced Cheddar Cheese, Dijon inside of one bread slice, Garlic Spread on inside of other slice1st sandwich toasted very dark on first side down, flip side shortened time. Next sandwiches I lowered electric stove temp. Toasted beautifully on both sides. Cheese was perfectly melted onto tomato/pickles. Served with scratch tomato soup. Delicious!

Would be more clarity if the recipe specified to spread the toum lon the outside” of one slice of bread.My Lebanese friend instructed me to make this in a mortar and pestle and no the water. Also insists that it only be stirred in one direction with repeated addition of oil until it stops absorbing it. I was told a chopper/blender would make it bitter.This is a wonderful accompaniment to flank steak and as a base for vinaigrette made with lemon and olive oil and mint.

Yep. Grilled cheese . And. No cornichons on hand so Americanized it more and used dill pickles. I mean, if it’s not authentic it’s not authentic. Toum is entirely a new notion in this house but will be used often!

I added some hot honey, and it was very good

As some suggested, I made this with 3/4 cup oil, adding a little bit at a time. I ended up with a nice frothy toum. Next time, I might reduce the salt to 1 tspn; for my taste -- I salt things only lightly -- it was a bit too much. I've used this not only for grilled cheese, but also as a spread for a turkey and swiss sandwich and in a spaghetti sauce. If you like garlic, it's a great, versatile condiment.

Since I don’t care to have tons of electric devices on counters and in drawers, I’m always curious how these traditional recipes would have been prepared prior to our love of convenience. Mortar and pestle? Mash with a fork? Left chunkier than an immersion blender’s version?

Toum means garlic in Arabic

This toum is now a go-to butter substitute for me for any savory use. I think you could use half the salt but otherwise I made this exactly as directed. I let the garlic, lemon juice and salt sit for a bit in glass first and used avocado oil which is much lower in saturated fat than many oils. It is so incredibly delicious (must love garlic!) and the recipe makes a LOT.

Whuss toum? If I've never tasted, how do I know if it's sufficiently salty?

Unlike everywhere else on the Internet, you should ALWAYS read the comments on a NYT recipe.Unfortunately...I didn't do that. I made the toum according to the directions and ended up with sad oily garlic.If you made the same mistake, here's what I recommend:1) grab another lemon, and another head of garlic2) start over, blending the garlic into a paste then alternating adding the juice of the other lemon and the garlic-oil a bit at a time (I did not add additional water or salt)3) profit

This may have already been said but it is much easier to spread the toum on one side of each of the 2 slices of bread. Have your cheese and pickles ready. Place one piece of bread toum side down and immediately put the cheese and pickles on top. Then top with the second slice of bread make sure the toum side is up.

I made the quick immersion-blended toum after 1st trying the NYT's "toum garlic whip" recipe suggested in Step 2. That came out perfect, but it takes a long time and now I have a big food processor to clean. The immersion method described here is certainly promising, though I think my impatience is what led to the dreaded "garlic oil soup" outcome. A slower addition of oil would be better. To fix it, I added a whole egg and it's good now, but more like garlic mayo. Nothing wrong with that!

I bought Trader Joe’s Garlic Spread Dip & Sourdough Bread. Let cheese get to room temp. I add fresh tomato slices, pickles between thinly sliced Cheddar Cheese, Dijon inside of one bread slice, Garlic Spread on inside of other slice1st sandwich toasted very dark on first side down, flip side shortened time. Next sandwiches I lowered electric stove temp. Toasted beautifully on both sides. Cheese was perfectly melted onto tomato/pickles. Served with scratch tomato soup. Delicious!

As some suggested, I made this with 3/4 cup oil, adding a little bit at a time. I ended up with a nice frothy toum. Next time, I might reduce the salt to 1 tspn; for my taste -- I salt things only lightly -- it was a bit too much. I've used this not only for grilled cheese, but also as a spread for a turkey and swiss sandwich and in a spaghetti sauce. If you like garlic, it's a great, versatile condiment.

Prepare to be turned into a clove of garlic!!This was way to much garlic, and I love the stuff but NO. Could not eat. Maybe spread on one side and at that blended with some mayo. Ugh!

I happened to make a grilled cheese with toum (from Costco) today before seeing this recipe. I used Gruyere and slathered the toum between the bread and the cheese. Delicious!

Or, Mayo or butter your bread slices on one side, sprinkle with garlic salt, then proceed in the usual way of making a grilled cheese.

Trader Joe's sells a truly excellent toum (just labeled "Garlic Spread Dip" and stocked with the other refrigerated dips) that tastes fresh and homemade, if you want to skip to Step 4. I've relied on it for years.

I added some hot honey, and it was very good

Love this! I used the immersion blender for the initial blending of the garlic, then switched to the food processor for the addition of oil/lemon/water, which made everything much easier. Next time will use the food processor for the whole process to see how fluffy I can make the toum