The Best Cheese for Grilled Cheese, According to Science

Close your eyes and imagine the perfect grilled cheese: The bread is perfectly buttered and crispy, and the cheese is gooey and stretches easily when you pull the two halves of the sandwich apart. Beautiful, right?

If you want this idea of grilled cheese perfection, the first place you need to start is cheese. What do you tend to pick up at the supermarket? According to science, here’s what you need to look for.

As you can see in the video above, from the American Chemical Society, the best cheese for your grilled cheese depends entirely on the pH balance of the cheese. If the cheese has a low pH level (think sharp cheeses), then the cheese will break down too much in your sandwich. The ideal range for the pH level for stretchy cheese is in the range of 5.3 to 5.5.

Some of the cheeses that fall into this magic pH range are Gruyère, manchego, Gouda, and American cheese. Do you have a favorite of the bunch?

Read more: This Is The Best Cheese For Grilled Cheeses, According To Science