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I used to have an appliance that's sold as a "mini-grill" and is something between a raclette and a tiny, frontally open toaster oven. It worked quite well for a lot of foods.

Now I have upgraded to an air fryer, because it's more energy efficient and the forced air creates better results. It works better than the old one for almost everything, except for one of the foods I make most frequently in it: grilled cheese sandwiches.

These are simpler than a pan-made grilled-cheese sandwich; I just toast slices of bread in the air fryer, with a thin slice of cheese on top, that melts under the heat. They were great in the mini-grill, but now I have a big problem: the fan literally blows off the cheese off the slice! I open it to find toasted bread with a lump of melted cheese beside it, oozing through the rack.

I don't have the counter space to keep the old mini-grill in use. I don't want to return to using it exclusively, because the air fryer is superior for all other foods I've tried. I also want to keep these sandwiches very simple and very quick to make - no changing the taste by e.g. gluing the cheese on with something like mustard, and also keep the fuss as low as possible.

What would be working solutions for continue having my quick grilled cheese sandwiches in an air fryer?

rumtscho
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2 Answers2

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Cut a narrower, thicker slice of cheese which only half covers the bread. The lower surface area stops it from flying away. Left to its own devices, it also won’t spread enough to cover the bread as it melts, but when you close up the sandwich you can rub the bread slices against each other a bit to address that.

Source: I’ve done exactly that, not to address airborne cheese but because I genuinely couldn’t be bothered to make thinner slices. So there’s your low-fuss.

Sneftel
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Toothpicks?

If you shove a couple of toothpicks through the cheese and bread (maybe trimming them with a pair of scissors if they are too tall), they ought to hold the cheese in place until it melts enough to adhere on its own. Just remember remove the toothpicks before eating.

Mayo, Mustard, or Some Other Sauce?

You could also try "gluing" the cheese to the bread with a bit of mayo or mustard before you put it into the air fryer. Depending on how intense the fan is, a little bit of sauce may hold the cheese in place long enough to let it melt.

(I know the question says "no mustard", but it is a good idea. A little bit of sauce ought to hold things down, and there are relatively flavor neutral sauces out there which should work well, such as mayo or softened butter. Or Cheez Whiz?)

Xander Henderson
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