A
croque-monsieur is a hot ham and
cheeseCheese is a food consisting of proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. It is produced by coagulation of the milk protein casein. Typically, the milk is acidified and addition of the enzyme rennet causes coagulation. The solids are separated and pressed into...
(typically
emmentalEmmental or Emmentaler is a cheese from Switzerland. It is sometimes known as Swiss cheese in North America, Australia and New Zealand, although Swiss cheese does not always imply Emmentaler....
or
gruyèreGruyère is a hard yellow cheese made from cow's milk, named after the town of Gruyères in Switzerland, and originated in the cantons of Fribourg, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Jura, and Berne. Before 2001, when Gruyère gained Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée status as a Swiss cheese, some controversy existed...
)
grilledGrilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat from above or below. Food to be grilled is cooked on a grill , a grill pan , or griddle...
sandwichA sandwich is a food item consisting of two or more slices of bread with one or more fillings between them, or one slice of bread with a topping or toppings, commonly called an open sandwich. Sandwiches are a widely popular type of food, typically taken to work or school, or picnics to be eaten as...
. It originated in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
as a fast-food snack served in
caféA café , also spelled cafe, is an informal restaurant offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches. This differs from a coffee house, which is a limited-menu establishment which focuses on coffee sales. Depending on the jurisdiction, a café may be licensed to serve alcohol. The term...
s and
barA bar is an establishment that serves drinks, especially alcoholic beverages such as beer, liquor, and cocktails, for consumption on the premises....
s. More elaborate versions come coated in a
MornayA Mornay sauce is a Béchamel sauce with shredded or grated cheese added. Usually, it consists of half Gruyère and half Parmesan cheese, though some variations use different combinations of Gruyère, Emmenthal cheese, or white cheddar....
or
Béchamel sauceBéchamel sauce or besciamella , also known as white sauce, is one of the mother sauces of French cuisine. It is used as the base for other sauces . It is traditionally made by whisking scalded milk gradually into a white flour-butter roux...
. The emergence of the croque-monsieur (and variations) is mirrored by growth in popular fast-foods in other countries.
The name is based on the verb
croquer ("to crunch") and the word
monsieur ("mister")—the reason behind the combination of the two words is unclear—and is colloquially shortened to
croque. While the origins of the croque-monsieur are unknown, there are many speculations on how it was first originated. The croque-monsieur's first recorded appearance on a
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian café
menuIn a restaurant, a menu is a printed brochure or public display that shows the list of options for a diner to select. A menu may be a la carte or table d'hôte....
was in 1910. Its earliest published use has been traced back to volume two of Proust's
Remembrance of Things Past (
À la recherche du temps perduIn Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past is a semi-autobiographical novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. His most prominent work, it is popularly known for its extended length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the "episode of the madeleine"...
) (1918).
Variations
A croque-monsieur served with a
fried eggFried eggs are traditionally eaten for breakfast in English-speaking countries, but may be eaten at other times of the day in other cultures.A fried egg is constructed by taking an egg and frying it....
or
poached eggA poached egg is an egg that has been cooked by poaching, that is, in water. No oil or fat is used in its preparation. Poached eggs are commonly used in Eggs Benedict and Eggs Florentine....
on top is known as a
croque-madame (or in parts of
NormandyNormandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the English Channel coast of Northern France between Brittany and Picardy and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands.Normandy is divided between French and British...
a
croque-cheval). Many dictionaries attribute the name to the egg resembling an old fashioned woman's hat. According to the
Petit RobertLe Petit Robert is a popular single-volume French dictionary first published by Paul Robert in 1967, an abridgement of his eight-volume Dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la langue française....
dictionary, the name dates to around 1960. The name
croque-mademoiselle is associated with many different sandwiches, from diet recipes to desserts.
A ham and cheese sandwich snack, very similar to the croque-monsieur, is called a tosti in the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
. A version of this sandwich in
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
replaces the ham with
sobrassadaSobrassada is a raw, cured sausage from the Balearic Islands made with ground pork, paprika and salt and other spices. Sobrassada, along with botifarró are traditional Majorcan sausage meat products prepared in the laborious but festive rites that still mark the autumn and winter pig slaughter in...
, a soft sausage from the
Balearic IslandsThe Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula....
that can be easily spread
Versions of the sandwich with substitutions or additional ingredients are given names modelled on the original
croque-monsieur, for example:
- croque provençal (with tomato)
- croque auvergnat (with bleu d'Auvergne
Bleu d'Auvergne is a French blue cheese, named for its place of origin in the Auvergne region of south-central France. It is made from cow's milk, and is one of the cheeses granted the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée from the French government....
cheese)
- croque gagnet (with gouda cheese and andouille
Andouille is definedas "a coarse-grained smoked meat made using pork, pepper, onions, wine, and seasonings. Andouille is French in origin, and was brought to Louisiana by French or German immigrants...
sausage)
- croque norvégien (with smoked salmon instead of ham)
- croque tartiflette
Tartiflette is a French dish from the Savoie region. It originated in the valley of Aravis, home of Reblochon cheese. It is not a traditional dish , and was, in fact, invented and launched only in the 1980s by the Reblochon trade union in an attempt to increase sales of the cheese...
(with sliced potatoes and ReblochonReblochon is a French cheese from the Alps region of Haute-Savoie and has been granted the AOC title. Reblochon was first produced in the Thônes and Arly valleys, in the Aravis massif. Thônes remains the centre of Reblochon production; the cheeses are still made in the local cooperatives. Until...
cheese)
- croque bolognese (with Bolognese sauce
Bolognese sauce is a meat-based sauce for pasta originating in Bologna, Italy...
)
- croque señor (with tomato salsa
Salsa may refer to any type of sauce. In American English, it usually refers to the spicy, often tomato based, hot sauces typical of Hispanic cuisine, particularly those used as dips...
)
- the "Croque McDo" sandwich at McDonald's locations in France
See also
- Welsh rarebit
- Grilled cheese sandwich
- Ham and cheese sandwich
The ham and cheese sandwich is a common type of sandwich. It is made by putting cheese and sliced ham between two slices of bread. The bread is sometimes buttered and toasted. Vegetables like lettuce, tomato, onion or pickle slices can also be included...
- Francesinha
Francesinha is a Portuguese sandwich originally from Porto, made with bread, wet-cured ham, linguiça, fresh sausage like chipolata, steak or roast meat and covered with molten cheese and a hot thick tomato and beer sauce.- History :It is said that the Francesinha was an invention in the 1960s...
- Monte Cristo sandwich
A Monte Cristo is a fried ham and/or turkey sandwich.The sandwich can differ regionally. Traditionally it is dipped in its entirety in batter and deep fried. In some regions of the United States it is served grilled, and in some regions it is served as an open sandwich with just the bread battered...