Virgin Mary image in Grilled Cheese Sandwich (now less OT)

[Michael Quinion]

Dale Coye wrote:

> In the Patrick O'Brien Aubrey-=Maturin series they are always eating
> toasted cheese on their voyages. Because they didn't include the word
> "sandwiches" I always wondered what exactly they were eating.  Was it
> in fact a sandwich, or just one piece of bread with cheese, or
> something without bread at all.

Definitely a piece of toast with melted cheese on top - "cheese on
toast" is an exact synonym. To answer some other points: the usual
term in British English is indeed "toasted cheese", never "grilled",
though the usual way of making it (at least in this household) is to
toast the underside of the bread, put the cheese on top and heat it
under the grill until the cheese melts. However, a toasted-cheese
sandwich is a cheese sandwich that has been heated up in a sandwich
toaster. Let us not get into the intricacies of Welsh rabbit, which
one of my subscribers keeps trying to tell me, in defiance of all
experience and every dictionary and cookery book I know of, is never
served on toast.

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <wordseditor at worldwidewords.org>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>