I collaborated on this sandwich with Diana, my sister-in-law. Diana is a member of the Bounded by Buns Patreon community and she was selected for her turn to tell me which sandwich to write about. We went around and around via email and text with different ideas and finally, we decided to focus on some of her favorite foods that she enjoyed as a child (and still today).
Diana lives a few hundred miles away from where I live, so she won’t get to try this sandwich but maybe at some point during the holidays or when she visits I can whip it up again. It’s not a difficult sandwich to make, but it’s tasty and extra cheesy—much like Diana’s jokes.
What is Diana’s sandwich?
This is a sandwich built on nostalgia. We narrowed things down to some of Diana’s favorite foods from her childhood that seemed like they could form a cohesive group. The three dishes we settled on were stovetop macaroni and cheese, canned peas (specifically the Le Sueur brand peas), and sliced ham as you might find at a holiday dinner. I could easily imagine these three items on a plate so I was pretty sure that I could turn them into a pretty tasty sandwich.
This sandwich is a ham, mac and cheese, and peas melt and I hate to spoil things but everything came together into a great sandwich experience.
Is this a grilled cheese or a melt?
This sandwich is a melt which I basically consider to be a grilled cheese plus sandwich. To me, this means it’s grilled cheese plus something else. I probably would be considered to be a grilled cheese purist and think that once you start adding a filling like steak, bacon, or pulled chicken it’s no longer a grilled cheese with steak, it’s a steak melt.
The main exception for this fairly loose melt vs grilled cheese rule might be vegetables. Is it a spinach melt or a grilled cheese with spinach? I think it’s probably a grilled cheese with spinach but I can see both sides of this argument. For the sake of this particular sandwich, we’ll be calling it a melt.
Throwback to January 2023 when I rebranded the whole month to #Meltuary and posted nothing but cheesy melty sandwiches.
At this point, we might be confused about grilled cheeses versus melts, but at least we know what sandwich we’re making so we need to get started on the bread.
The sandwich slices
Normally I try to space out the different bread from sandwich to sandwich so that I’m not writing about the same bread this week that I wrote about last week. I do repeat bread recipes but I try to space them out with a few weeks in between.
That’s not happening this week. This is the same bread that I made last week because I had my sourdough starter all warmed up for the Jimmy Carter sandwich and felt it just made sense to use it again this week for this particular grilled melt.
This is my sourdough sandwich loaf recipe and if you have a sourdough starter, it works well as a good option for a grilled cheese-style sandwich.
I baked this loaf in a 9-inch Pullman pan which is simply a standard, narrow, and tall pan that you can find in two different lengths. This is the short version of a Pullman pan that makes a 4 x 9-inch loaf that produces about 10 slices of bread (not counting the butt ends).
Pullman-style pans date back to the 18th century in Europe but they didn’t get their name until the late 19th or early 20th century during the railway boom in the United States. These standardized, easy-to-stack pans, were widely adopted by the Pullman Company which produced railroad cars that were known for their fine luxuries.
As of the writing of this blog post, a small 9-inch Pullman pan with a cover is on sale for the same price as the same Pullman pan without a lid. The large 13-inch Pullman pan with a cover is only 5 dollars more than the smaller one with a cover. My advice: buy a 13-inch w/ cover and a 9-inch without cover because the large cover works with the smaller pan.
I like the Pullman-style pans because they produce square-ish rectangular, consistent slices that also happen to be just a bit larger than a slice of cheese. Sometimes when I use a 4 x 8-inch or 5 x 9-inch loaf pan I get slices that are not quite the right size for a sandwich. The Pullman size works really well for me and produces great bread.
A good white bread or Texas toast will work great if you wanted to make this sandwich and you weren’t planning to bake the bread.
Sourdough sandwich loaf
This is a soft sandwich loaf with extra flavor from the sourdough starter. You must have a starter prior to starting this recipe and all of the measurements are in grams. There are resources and links about sourdough starters in the notes section at the bottom of this recipe.
Get RecipeStovetop mac and cheese
I like mac and cheese, but I don’t love mac and cheese.
I didn’t eat a whole lot of it when I was growing up. My mom made it occasionally but I can’t remember her ever making the stovetop variety—it was always baked. My wife and her sister on the other hand were really big fans of their mom’s homemade mac and cheese that she made when they were kids. They both love it.
My wife helped me with this recipe and she thinks it’s pretty close to the macaroni and cheese that she and my sister-in-law grew up loving.
Stovetop mac and cheese is pretty simple in concept. You cook the pasta according to the directions on the package and then you make a simple cheese sauce and incorporate the sauce with the noodles. In my experience, you need to serve mac and cheese fairly quickly because the sauce will start to firm up a little as it cools.
The cheese sauce that I make requires butter, all-purpose flour, milk, cheese, and seasonings like garlic powder, salt, and pepper. You first melt the butter and incorporate the flour which is going to serve as a thickening agent. The milk gives the sauce some liquid and the cheese will melt into everything and thicken due to the cooked butter and flour in the sauce.
As the cheese melts the sauce will thicken. As the sauce cools, it will thicken even more. This cooling and tightening of the cheese sauce works well when you want to incorporate mac and cheese into a sandwich so I move all the melty and gooey mac and cheese into an 8 x 8-inch baking dish covered with plastic wrap and allow it to hang out in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight.
After the mac and cheese has spent some time in the fridge you should be able to cut slices and add to the middle of a ham and cheese melt.
Below is the recipe I used for stovetop mac and cheese. This recipe doesn’t go into cooling the mac and cheese and turning it into sandwichable squares. Those instructions are in the full sandwich recipe at the bottom of this blog post.
Stovetop macaroni and cheese
This is the most basic of stovetop macaroni and cheese recipes. You can adjust the flavors by adding spices and changing up the cheeses if you want, but this will be as close to the box mac and cheese—that kids love—as you can get.
Get RecipePeas Cheese™
“a little bit of peas in every bite”
I believe this is my newest invention. I incorporated peas into some cheese and then turned those into sandwich-sized melty slices.
There is such a thing as green pea cheese but it’s a vegan recipe for a cheese alternative and very different from this fantastic Peas Cheese that I created.
If you’ve been around this sandwich blog for a while you’ll know that this isn’t the first flavored cheese slices that I’ve made. I have made and have recipes for bacon-infused cheese slices, giardiniera cheese slices, gochujang cheddar slices, and roasted garlic white cheddar slices that you can whip up in just a few minutes and have ready for your next big sandwich adventure. I’ve grouped all the cheese slice recipes using the button below.
Once the peas cheese is on the sheet pan, topped with parchment or wax paper, move it to the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight. This firms up the cheese which allows you to slice and store.
The magic in this method of making cheese slices is sodium citrate. I’ve written about this a few times before, but sodium citrate is an anticoagulant which—when used in this way—will ensure that the cheese sauce is smooth and doesn’t clump up. Add some peas and you’ve got a bunch of Peas Cheese!
I guess one of the questions that you might be hoping for me to answer at this point is what does Peas Cheese taste like? It doesn’t taste strongly of peas, but if you eat a slice by itself you get a bit of sweetness and texture in the cheese. Any savoriness from the peas is pretty much overshadowed by the salt in the cheese though, so the flavors are very subtle. I think you could add more peas if you wanted to try to get more flavor, but with the recipe that I created, in this sandwich with ham and more cheese, it’s more of a visual and textural addition.
Here’s the recipe that I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for: Peas Cheese. If you just want to quickly make a version of this sandwich without making your own sliced cheese, just use American cheese slices and maybe add 2 or 3 spoons of peas to your macaroni and cheese. Or skip the peas altogether if you want.
Peas cheese slices
It's peas and cheese. Next time you need peas in your grilled cheese, this is the recipe for you.
Get RecipeHam slices
For this sandwich, I felt it would be nice to have thicker sliced ham instead of thin deli-style slices and I ran it past Diana and she gave me her thumbs up. I didn’t want to buy a huge ham just for the three or four sandwiches I would be making for this recipe so I instead bought a 1.25-inch thick ham steak and put my deli meat slicer to work.
For this sandwich or pretty much any melt that has meat inside, I suggest warming the meat before building the sandwich. In the case of this sandwich—with ham—I just warm the meat in a warm skillet that I will eventually wipe out and use to griddle/grill the sandwich. Warming the meat can serve a couple of purposes. First, it could add texture if you sear the meat until it’s a little crispy. Secondly, having warm meat to add to the interior of the sandwich will help the other sandwich ingredients to warm up from the inside out. This is especially important when most of the ingredients are cheese that will melt when warmed up.
Now that we have all of our ingredients settled, we can start the sandwich assembly and cooking adventure.
Griddling process
A key to the grilled cheese or melt griddling/grilling process is to cook low and slow. This means keeping the temperature of the pan or griddle fairly low—I use medium-low on my gas burner—which means we will be cooking the sandwich fairly slowly. The worst thing you can do with grilled cheese is to get the exterior super dark brown while the interior is still cold.
Another tip is to cover the sandwich while it cooks. If you are cooking in a pan, you can use the lid to cover. If your pan doesn’t have a lid, you can use a sheet pan as a lid in a pinch. If you are cooking on a griddle like in the photos below, you can flip over a metal bowl on top of the sandwich while it cooks. This creates a warmer environment for the sandwich which should help to heat the cheese and meat inside of the sandwich while the exterior bread toasts slowly.
Build process slideshow
The build process starts with the first slice of bread. Add mayo or mustard if you want, but I don’t think it’s needed. 
Then add a slice of Peas Cheese. 
After the ham has been griddled and warmed up add it on top of the first slice. 
Then add the cut out rectangle of mac and cheese on top of the warm ham. 
The second slice of cheese goes on top of the mac and cheese so that it will touch the bread. 
Close the sandwich with the second bread slice.
The combination of cooking low and slow and using a lid should help to get the cheeses melty while the exterior of the bread stays crunchy.
Just be sure to be careful removing the bowl or sheet pan if you’re using something metal without a handle on top of a hot cooking surface.
Note: I usually use this space to remind you to put a grilled cheese or melt-style sandwich on a cooling rack after cooking instead of directly on a plate or cutting board. The cooling rack will keep the bottom slice of bread from steaming itself and getting soggy. But I’m not going to remind you this time since you’ve been a great, consistent reader of my sandwich blog and you don’t need reminding because you already knew this. Thank you.
The Divine Diana ham, mac and peas cheese melt
Here are several photos of the ham, mac and peas cheese melt sandwiches that I made during the testing of this recipe. The full recipe is just beyond the photos, so keep scrolling if you’re interested in that.
Ham, mac and peas cheese melt
This ooey gooey cheese and ham melt is packed full of melty and cheesy excitement with a touch of peas for your health. Check the notes at the bottom for the optional Peas Cheese.
Ingredients:
Mac and cheese- 1 cup macaroni noodles
- water (3/4 full in a medium pot)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 3⁄4 cup milk
- 1⁄4 teaspon garlic powder
- 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
- 1⁄8 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 6 ounces American cheese, shredded (1.5 cups = 8 slices)
- 3 tablespoons canned peas, drained and roughly chopped
- 1⁄4 cup water
- 7 grams sodium citrate (2 teaspoons - see note)
- 8 ounces Cheddar cheese, shredded (1/2 pound)
- 2 to 4 slices of thick cut ham
- 2 slices of white bread
- 2 slices of Peas Cheese (from above)
- 1 sandwich sized slice of mac and cheese (from above)
- 2 teaspoons butter
Suggested Equipment
Directions:
Mac and cheese: cook 1 cup of macaroni per package instructions. This is typically something like: fill a pot 3/4 up with water and bring it to a boil. Add macaroni noodles and bring the water back to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to keep the water simmering and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until the noodles are tender.
Drain the pasta in a colander or strainer. While the pasta drains, return the empty pot to the stove and turn the heat under the pot to medium.
Add a tablespoon of butter and when the butter is melted and bubbling, add 1 tablespoon of flour. Stir until no dry flour is visible and cook the flour and butter for 1 more minute.
Pour in 3/4 cup of milk and stir well. Bring the milk to a boil and reduce the heat until the liquid simmers.
Once simmering, add garlic powder, salt, and ground black pepper.
Add cheese, a handful at a time, and stir until that cheese is melty before adding another handful. Continue until all of the cheese is melty and the sauce is smooth.
Pour the drained macaroni noodles back into the pot with the cheese sauce and stir until all noodles are coated with cheese.
Add all of the mac and cheese into an 8 x 8-inch baking dish and with a spoon or spatula spread it out until it's in an even layer. Cover the dish with a lid or plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight to solidify.
Peas cheese slices: add a greased or Silpat lined sheet pan to your oven on its lowest setting. Mine is 150 F (65 C).
Drain 3 tablespoons of canned peas and give them a rough chop just to break up some of the peas.
Add water to a medium-sized pot and bring to a simmer. Add sodium citrate and stir to combine.
Slowly add all the shredded cheese, stopping to stir the cheese into the sauce after every handful. Once all the cheese is added stir very well while the cheese is still simmering to make sure it is very smooth. Add the peas and stir until they are fully incorporated in the sauce.
Once the peas and cheese mixture is very smooth, carefully pour the sauce over the warm sheet pan and shake the sheet pan to allow the sauce to spread out. You may need a knife or offset spatula for this.
Cover the cheese with parchment or wax paper, press down with your hands to flatten the cheese sauce, and move the pan to a refrigerator to cool for around at least an hour.
Once the peas cheese is fully cool, you can carefully remove it from the sheet pan and slice the cheese into 3.5-inch squares or whatever shapes you desire. To store the cheese, place a piece of parchment or wax paper between each slice and store it in the refrigerator for up to three weeks.
Warming the ham: in a skillet over medium heat, warm the slices of ham. This should only take about 5 minutes or you can cook longer if you prefer to brown the ham.
Sandwich assembly: once the ham is warmed, add a slice of Peas Cheese to a slice of bread and top with the ham slices.
Cut out a bread slice-sized rectangle of cold mac and cheese and carefully spatula it on top of the ham slices. Cover the mac and cheese with the second slice of Peas Cheese and the second slice of bread.
Sandwich grilling: wipe out the pan that you used to warm the ham place it back over medium-low heat and allow the pan to warm up for 5 minutes.
Spread a teaspoon of butter on the outside of one piece of bread and place it butter-side down in the warm pan. Cook for 3 minutes and check to see if the underside of the bread is starting to get toasty. Keep checking every minute or so until it starts to look golden brown. When it does, spread the second teaspoon of butter on the top exposed slice of bread and flip the sandwich.
Cook the second side for about the same amount of time as the first side, checking every minute or so for browning. If the cheese looks like it's not getting melty at all when you flip the sandwich, cover the pan with a pan lid or sheet pan while you cook the second side. This will help to steam the interior of the sandwich to melt the cheese.
When both sides of the sandwich are golden brown, move the sandwich to a cooling rack and remove the pan from the heat.
Serve and enjoy.
Notes:
Peas cheese: if you don't want to make your own cheese, you can substitute American cheese, Cheddar cheese, or Colby Jack cheese slices.
If you use your own slices of cheese and still want to incorporate peas into the sandwich you can add 3 to 5 tablespoons of drained peas into the macaroni and cheese right after you add the cheese sauce back to the pasta. Stir to make sure the peas are incorporated well and refrigerate.
Sodium citrate is not going to be something you can find at the grocery store. Here is the brand of Sodium Citrate that I use from Amazon.
Check back next week
Next week I might be cooking up some beef? Maybe I’ll even eat a salad after all this cheese. I’m not totally sure yet but it’s going to be fun no matter what. Check back and see how it turns out!
