Every Dutch person, and many other cultures around the world, have fond memories of Tosti’s or grilled cheese as they are known in other places. Here is a letter of admiration to the one food that is always there for you. The Tosti.
Drunk, stoned, down, happy, exhausted, a Tosti is ready in the least amount of effort and time. Its what you craved after stumbling into your dorm room kitchen from a club, a late night drunken campfire, or trying to keep yourself together.
Pretty much any snackbar, sportsclub, or café will have them. A Tosti, which can be had in a lot of different forms, is marked in the quality in its ingredients. The cheapest ones use the cheapest ingredients, in all its components. The more expensive ones use better quality ingredients (you hope). Lets break those down below.
Cheese
There can be a lot of different cheeses for a Tosti, but to have the classic experience, go for some young Gouda. Young Gouda is not a single brand, but many different ones all producing the same style of cheese.
I would suggest tasting and trying several different options that are available to you. Here in Germany I use the young Gouda from the Netto, but to get the best cheese, you can also checkout the “fresh” counter. Market stalls, or ask your local.
Try to get the solid piece of cheese, instead of the slices. Yes, the slices are easier, but they are often not as fresh as can be.
If you cannot find young Gouda, mild younger cheeses all the world over can be used. Younger Cheddars, Emmentaler, etc.
Ham
The cheapest Tosti’s come with the mysteriously square ham slices from pigs that have never seen the light of day. The better ones will come with a nice boiled ham with a traceable farm attached. I tend to nudge towards having a bit thicker cut boiled ham.
Since you don’t want something to overpowering.
Can also easily switched out for something vegetarian. Or left out for a classic kaastosti.
Bread
Casino white bread is the classic choice, which is not sweet like “toast” bread in many other countries. But the perfect vessel to get crispy and suck up all that fat leaking out from the cheese and ham. You can also swap this out for darker breads or wholewheat.
But to get that classic taste, a Casino witje is the foundation of choice.
Butter
To get the proper flavor and crust, its essential to butter the sandwich on the outside (top and bottom) before making it. Oil will not give the right flavor. Margarine or butter alternatives can be used, blue band halvarine was the brand of choice when I was growing up.
Some other cultures use Mayo instead of butter, these people are wrong, and should be ignored. Unless you like rotten fish taste on your tosti.
Sauces
A tosti should come with some sauce, without any I grew up on, but my best friends family dipped away. And once I tried it that way, I prefered it. Combine with some mayonnaise and curry ketchup to get my favorite combo. Or go for standard ketchup.
Some mayo and sambal brandal, or straight siracha, is also amazing when waking up hungover. To fire away the booze from last night.
Preparing a Tosti
You can make a Tosti in any kitchen, with a lot of different ways. I am team tosti ijzer, or grilled cheesemaker all the way. Yes, its a single use kitchen item, but that’s also the way I grew up. So there is a lot of nostalgia attached to that perfect pressed triangle crust.
Oven is also great, to get a extreme even crispy crust. Just always use a bit of baking paper, else its gonna be a mess. 15 minutes at 180 celsius is often plenty, depending on how high you stacked it. And how cripsy you want it.
Straight in the pan is also a great option, but be sure to press it down a bit by resting a plate and cup on it for example. You get a better crust that way. In the pan you don’t need to butter the outside, just throw a knob of butter in before adding the Tosti, and again on the flip. Use low to medium heat. And pay some attention. Else you burn the bread and still get cold cheese.
You can also make a great tosti in a panini press or sandwich maker, and can vary a bit more in the breads and toppings you get to pick. This is probably the best way for somebody that does not want to have a dedicated kitchen appliance for one job. Since you can cook a lot more stuff in a press.
Making the Tosti
Making the Tosti shall be straight forward, and there are no special tricks here, you just need to pay a bit of attention, and not walk away to long. Assemble the Tosti the following way:
- bread
- cheese slices
- ham
- cheese slices
- bread
Spread butter on the side facing you, place in your cooking method buttered side down, and butter the other side. Cook till desired doneness, and go nuts.
Topping variations
The sky is the limit for topping variations, a slice of tomato in there is good, bacon instead of ham is amazing, something pickled, onions, some nutella and banana. You can go as crazy as you want. But at some point you are getting past the point of a tosti.
I hope you thought this way too long article on something so simple was entertaining, and you give a Tosti a try. Share your favorite toppings in the comments!
If you want to read more about classic Dutch Food, take a look at my other articles.
