Today I took the advice of Alton Brown and bought myself a brick... actually two. They were simple 6-pound bricks that I brought home and double-wrapped in heavy duty aluminum foil.

Altogether, bricks and foil probably cost a combined total of $1.50, including tax, and they were worth every penny.

I picked up some brie, some shaved ham, and some ciabatta sandwich rolls at Costco. I sliced the sandwich rolls, dug some of the bread out of the top, then layered on mustard, brie, ham, more brie, and more mustard, capping it with the hollowed-out top. I heated my grill pan over a low flame, sprayed it with a quick hit of cooking spray, put on a sandwich, and put a foil-wrapped brick on top of the sandwich.

I cooked it about four minutes per side and the result was the best ham sandwich I've ever had. Crispy and crunchy on the outside, gooey and chewy on the inside. Mmmmm.

It's probably the cheapest kitchen utensil you'll ever buy, but once you make a sandwich like that, you'll wonder why you were such a skinflint and didn't get a brick sooner.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 9:10 pm and is filed under Cooking & Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.