Meatless Friday: The Great Grilled Cheese Debate

Butter or mayo? Our social media followers shared strong opinions about how to make that Lenten favorite, grilled cheese sandwiches.

On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday my husband has always requested that I serve the dinner his mom always served on those two days: grilled cheese sandwiches and canned soup.

Now, I'm a big fan of grilled cheese, but I like to mix things up. If you want to make a meal penitential for me, lock me into a recipe routine. For me, all the fun is in the variety. Trying new recipes or finding new spins on old favorites makes cooking fun for me, in a way that flipping grilled cheeses and heating up canned soup is … not. You can hear more about the time I served grilled cheese and soup every Friday for Lent in a recent episode of the Catholic Momcast.

Have You Tried This Grilled Cheese Trend?

Recently I've been seeing social media posts about using mayo on the bread instead of butter when making a grilled cheese. To be perfectly honest, I haven't tried this variation yet. I'm always up for changing the bread, cheese, and other fillings (caramelized onions, Swiss, and mustard on rye, anyone?) but I always spread plenty of butter on the outside before I grill that sandwich.

I decided to ask our social media followers what they thought about this idea. Turns out, people are really passionate about their grilled cheese. 

While we did get a few readers on the mayo side, Catholic Mom followers on social media overwhelmingly chose butter as their grilled-cheese spread of choice.

Team Butter

Catholic Mom writer, Louisana native Karen Ullo, commented on my post: "Mayo on grilled cheese? What is this Yankee atrocity? BUTTER. Grilled cheese is made with BUTTER." (For the record, butter vs. mayo did not appear to be related to any sort of regional divide.)

Reader Rita Buettner commented on Instagram, "I've never tried with mayo, and I had never even heard of doing it that way until my husband asked me not to use mayo."

Team Mayo ... and Team BOTH!

Our own Maria Morera Johnson who suggests using both butter and mayo on the bread. A few readers suggested putting mayo on the inside of the bread and butter on the outside. Catholic Mom writer Bonnie Drury advocated putting both on the outside: "A thin layer of butter, then a thin layer of mayo. You get the butter flavor and the mayo crunch."

Catholic Mom writer Caitrin Bennett declared, "Mayo toasts the bread up better and so much easier to spread."

And Father Daren Zehnle shared a strong opinion for Team Mayo: "The only ones who use butter are those who haven't tried mayo yet."

Team ... PB&J?

Finally, our own Allison Gingras rerouted the discussion by promoting her favorite: grilled PB&J ... but that's an article for another day.

Get Your Griddles Ready

If you're having grilled cheese and soup with your family tonight, tell us about it! How do you make a grilled cheese?