Summer grilling displays have cropped up at my local lifestyle store as quickly as dandelions infiltrated my spring lawn. It was amid one such retail hootenanny that I recently spied, with my critical eye, a surefire way to keep $12.95 plus tax in your pocket: Just keep on walking by the cheese-melting grill dome.
The equipment put me in mind of Rachael Ray garbage bowls, which no matter how goofy a specialty item I think they are, seem to sell quite nicely and make people happy. The cheese melting dome is made of lightweight aluminum, with a handle on top and the span of your average pie plate. Slap it over a burger-in-process that has a fresh slice of American or Swiss cheese on top, wait a few minutes, and — although I haven't tested this particular device — you'll achieve professional melting. Heck, time spent under the hood might even capture/infuse more flavor in your food, they say.
I say professional, because chefs and short-order slingers have long employed the technique. They use a handled metal dome; the handle makes sense for somebody who has to repeat the melting task hundreds of times or intensify/contain the heat around one order on a flattop griddle.
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The rest of us can make do by inverting a stainless-steel mixing bowl (which you already own, in several sizes I bet) to produce the same effect. Slip a knife under the rim to lift the upside-down bowl just enough so you can grab it with tongs. Try it and you’ll see.
And because melted cheese comes under the category of Foods Appropriate for Chilly Weather, which we’re currently experiencing, here are some favorites from our Recipe Finder that you could dome (transitive verb; to cover for the purpose of melting).
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Grilled Gouda and Smoked Ham Sandwich With Cornichons
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