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Cheese and Garlic
Buy some good old Wisconsin cheese. It costs 20% more than green, rubbery store or rat-trap cheese, but then, it's lost at least that much water in standing around several years, so you're probably getting more cheese for your money; and the flavor, of course, is incomparable. Peel all the cloves of 3-4 heads of good garlic, the younger and fresher the better, and fry them in a very little olive oil until they're soft and gelatinous. Push them to one side of the pan to keep warm while you melt a couple of good slices of your old cheese in the pan and when it's bubbling and creamy pour everything, garlic, cheese and oil over a big thick slab of hearth bread, plain or toasted. Butter, of course, is unnecessary with this rich miniature meal.
A skillet sandwich with two variables that decide whether it works: the age of the cheese and the patience of the garlic. Both reward slow heat.
- The cheese"Good old Wisconsin cheese" points to a well-aged cheese, probably a sharp cheddar; the recipe says only that it has stood several years. Buy it in a block and slice it yourself; pre-shredded cheese is coated with starch or cellulose and will melt grainy.
- "Rat-trap cheese"Slang for the cheapest mild yellow cheese, the sort sold in bulk; the name is usually explained by its use as trap bait, though that is folk tradition rather than established etymology. It is not a variety, only a grade, and the recipe is telling you to avoid it.
- Garlic quantityThree or four whole heads, all of it going onto a single slab as written. Scale down if you want a milder result, but the full amount is what the recipe calls for.
- Frying the garlicWhole peeled cloves in a shallow film of olive oil over low heat, until they collapse and turn soft and translucent; the recipe gives no timing, but this is slow work. Let them scorch and they turn bitter, and no amount of cheese will hide it.
- Melting cheese in the panAged cheese breaks and weeps oil if it gets too hot. The recipe wants it bubbling and creamy, so keep the heat gentle, add the slices, and stir only enough to bring it together.
- Hearth breadA rustic loaf baked directly on the oven floor or a stone, with a thick crust and open crumb. Any country sourdough or ciabatta slab an inch thick will hold the load; sandwich bread will not.
- YieldOne sandwich, as written: a couple of good slices of cheese and the fried garlic over a single thick slab.