Although Spam® may not be your go to meat choice, there are a lot of recipes that have been created around this canned meat. With 6 primary ingredients – pork with ham, potato starch, water, salt, sugar and sodium nitrate – Spam® was key to feeding our troops during WWII and retained some popularity since its introduction in 1937. Although this is a high sodium food item, it can offer some easy meal prep and is super easy to smoke. In fact, due to the small size of the servings, I’m going to show you how to grill-smoke this using my chimney starter only and a grill rack. Then I’ll take these charry slices and make an Asian Inspired Spam® Slider. Go select your favorite variety of Spam® and let’s get this smoked in no time!
#spam
Spam® on a Chimney Starter- Plain or with a Little Marinade Boost
Who doesn’t love a grilled cheese sandwich! We are taking this grilled sandwich favorite and elevating the flavor with a cold smoked cheese assortment. Get the griddle or cast-iron pan ready! We’re making Smoked Grilled Cheese with Tomato and Pepper Jelly!
What You’ll Need
Certainly, you can purchase smoked cheese in the specialty grocery locations but we have a step-by-step series showing you the easy method of stove top smoking cheese that can be done in just a few hours. For our version of the smoked grilled cheese sandwich, you’ll need smoked cheese – we are using an assortment that includes Swiss, muenster, horseradish cheddar, and fresh mozzarella. In addition, you’ll need some fresh sliced tomato – sliced about ¼-inch thick -, a firm bread – we’re using sourdough and salt rising -, hot pepper jelly, and mayonnaise. You’ll also need a griddle, cast iron skillet, or other heavy duty frying pan and spatula for cooking your sandwiches. Oh, and feel free to do this on a grill if you like.
The Assembly
It’s important that your griddle or pan be hot before starting the sandwiches. I recommend a medium setting. If using cast iron, let that pan heat up about 5 minutes before starting the cooking process. First up, take a bread slice and coat one side with mayonnaise. Yes, I said mayonnaise not butter. It produces a nice browning and crisping to the bread beyond what butter can do. Place mayo side down in the pan and add your sliced smoked cheeses. Top with a tomato slice. On the second slice of bread, coat one side with hot pepper jelly, leaving a little bread border near the edges as the jelly will migrate during cooking. Place pepper jelly side down on the tomato. Now coat the face up side of the bread with mayonnaise.
This starts the monitoring stage. You want to peak at one corner of the sandwich after cooking about 3 minutes. If you see golden brown, it’s time to flip the sandwich. Once both sides are cooked, remove to a plate.
Like No Other
As I have 4 smoked cheeses to choose from, I like to put a combination of cheese on a single sandwich. Once you have a chance to experiment with the different combinations, you’ll find your favorites. It’s important to slice your sandwich on the diagonal while still hot so each half has a chance to marry all the flavors with the bread. Now, kick back and enjoy all that smoky, gooey goodness. Just be sure you have more than one made as it likely won’t be a single sandwich event!
I’ll bet you’ve already come up with your own variation of the Smoked Grilled Cheese Sandwich! Your comments and ratings are much appreciated, so subscribe and follow us so you don’t miss a thing. We always welcome your suggestions as well on recipes and techniques you want to learn about. We are your source for all things wood-fired, providing tips, techniques, recipes, and the science behind the fire.
