Stuck In A Hotel Room? Make A Delicious Grilled Cheese With This Crafty Hack

Travelling, especially to new places, can be fun, but staying in a hotel room, especially if it's longer than you expected? Not so much. You have to be careful of the mini fridge, for one, and, as places to hang your hat, function takes priority in hotels, unless you've got very deep pockets. That being said, we've come to expect a few home comforts as standard in hotel rooms, and one of the most basic — the humble iron — is key to a hack for chef's kiss grilled cheese. As well as the requisite bread, cheese, and butter, all you need is some tinfoil to create a delicious taste of home.

Turn the iron to its hottest setting, then assemble the ingredients as you would for a traditional grilled cheese. Making sure the buttered sides of the bread face out, wrap the sandwich in aluminum foil, then put the hot iron on it for several minutes – using the ironing board as a surface is probably best for safety purposes here. The longer you leave it, the more toasted the bread will be, but keep a close eye on it so your cooking adventure doesn't set off the fire alarm. Leave it to cool a little, then carefully unwrap the foil (watch those fingers!) and devour. Using a hotel's iron to cook a grilled cheese ranks up there with cooking ramen in the kettle – one of several alternative ways to use that appliance besides making tea — and more people have done it than you might think.

One commenter on a Facebook thread revealed how, while travelling on business, they'd used a towel, rather than foil, to make their grilled cheese, saying it "worked like a charm," while another added ham to their sandwich. Some also said they upgraded their grilled cheese with fancier ingredients, including brioche bread and turkey with honey mustard. For many people, the hack (dubbed by one commenter as "the old Prison Special") was something they learned during their college days, when hot plates and similar devices weren't allowed in their dorms.

Now, necessity is often the mother of invention, and we're all for a college foodie hack – this ramen pizza is a good example — but it's worth taking a few precautions when using an iron to make grilled cheese so we all stay safe. Don't be tempted to leave the iron sitting on the foil-wrapped sandwich for too long in case it starts to burn, and double-check there are no gaps or holes in the foil. Any grease or cheese that leaks out and sticks to the iron's plate will do your clothes zero favors. Finally, be considerate of the hotel's cleaning staff and tidy up after yourself!