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!

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 added some hot honey, and it was very good

Nope. Toum requires the magic of emulsification to get the wondrous fluffly texture. You have to add the oil slowly and be really patient. It'll happen, emulsification is a magical sort of food alchemy when the oil and water molecules combine just so. I've also never heard of using anything other than olive oil in a formal recipe, no doubt restaurants substitute the cheaper ones. If an Arabic restaurant doesn't have fluffy toum, it's not a proper Arabic joint.

I had a jar of Toum that I had made for use with Grilled Chicken (just about the best way to eat Grilled Chicken). So, it made the construction of this excellent sandwich very easy. I added a good sprinkle of Aleppo Pepper to the sandwich to make it even more delicious.I note below that one individual used olive oil. Even thought the olive oil tastes good, it doesn't seem to work. I've made Toum many times and for some reason the olive oil doesn't fluff up like another neutral oil does.

Don't use olive oil to make toum. Stick to neutral oils, per the recipe.

Toum is one of my new favorite things . Just traded up to a great immersion blender so this recipe is perfect. Add a swirl of hot honey for the perfect sandwich or salad garnish.

What a lot of bother to make a grilled cheese snadwich!! We're not talking DB Bistro here. Just slather the bottom sides of dood snadwich bread with Duke's mayonnaise, insert a slice of A,erocam cheese and sautee in a cast-iron skillet.Flip when golden. Ninety0second perfection.

why can't you shortcut this with a mayo base? I already use mayo to crispy up grilled cheese, next time I will add lemon, garlic and salt to see it it gets a boost ala this recipe.

This is a great way to “adult” grilled cheese. I often will make an adult version with whatever sliced deli cheese in the fridge from American, Swiss, Muenster, pepper Jack, cheddar

Great sandwich. Olive oil isn't neutral, but it's also an option in the toum. Among the many uses for the remaining toum: Dress the halves of an avocado with, close your eyes, it and you'll be transported to any city you like between Dakar and Damascus.

Just had the best grilled cheese sandwich of my life. Made the toum exactly as written and came out with a beautiful fluffy and stable emulsion. The flavor punch! I am dipping everything into it. Thanks Ham for introducing me to my new favorite condiment. Going do Sohlas spatchco*cked chicken this weekend and offer up some toum for those that like to dip.

If you don't have an immersion mixer it is easy to make toum in a food processor. Just slowly add in the oil. It is a lot easier and less awkward than the method described in the recipe.

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