Croque

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French croque monsieur

A croque (from French croquer = to crack, crack, bite) is the French variant of the sandwich . This snack can be found for the first time on the menu of a Parisian café from 1910. The first literary mention of Croque Monsieur can be found in Proust's In Search of Lost Time of 1918.

Croque in France

With the Croque Monsieur and the Croque Madame , cheese (often Emmentaler , Gruyère or Comté ) and boiled ham are placed between two lightly sweetened, crust-free brioche-like bread slices , the folded bread is then sprinkled with grated, lightly salted and peppered cheese and baked in the oven (demanding Café version) or fried in a frying pan (at home, quick option), or grilled in a croque-monsieur-specific, horizontal grill. The cheese should run down over the bread.

French croque madame

There is also a fried egg on top of the “Madame” variant.

A popular variation is dipping the previously browned (e.g. grilled) slices of bread in whisked egg before baking. You can also use normal, low-crust house bread, brushed with butter and possibly crème fraîche or béchamel sauce on the ham and cheese. This is also how it is served in Switzerland , especially in French- speaking Switzerland .

Croque in Northern Germany

Croque as it is served in Germany, here without remoulade

In northern Germany, baguettes with boiled ham and cheese are called croques, but they differ significantly from the classic French croques. The invention of these croques is attributed to the Austrian restaurateur Rudolf Scheichl, who lives in Hamburg , who created them in 1976 as a cheap dish for his snack bar and sold them under the name Croque . The main difference in preparation is how the lower half of the baguette and the ingredients are gratinated. In the meantime, in addition to boiled ham, any other ingredients are used, including vegetarian ones. After baking, iceberg lettuce or coleslaw and other ingredients such as onions or fried onions can be added. A sauce usually based on mayonnaise , such as tartar sauce , herb or garlic sauce, is used as a seasoning component , which is either spread on the baguette halves before baking or served as a dip with the baguette.

Remarks

  1. ↑ In the French original one speaks of the pain de mie . Definitely not to be confused with the usual toasted bread.
  2. ↑ The common, grilled variant is a side effect of a literal translation outside of France, since grillé à la poêle means “fried in a pan” in French, but not grilled or toasted.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Prosper Montagné, Charlotte Snyder Turgeon and Nina Froud: Larousse Gastronomique . Crown Publishing Group, New York City 1961, ISBN 0-517-50333-6 .
  2. ↑ In: Trésor de la langue française .
  3. ↑ Histoire et recette du croque-monsieur traditionnel. Autour de la Gastronomie, Blog, August 12, 2013, accessed on July 6, 2016 : “Traditionnellement, le“ croque ”est un sandwich fait avec du jambon et du fromage (comté ou emmental), le tout entre deux tranches de pain de mie saisi à la poêle ou au four. "
  4. ↑ a b c croque-monsieur et croque-madame. aufimin cuisine suisse, March 18, 2009, accessed on January 3, 2016 (French): “Traditionnellement, le“ croque ”est un sandwich fait avec du jambon et du fromage (comté ou emmental), le tout entre deux tranches de pain de mie saisi à la poêle ou au four. "
  5. ↑ Croque monsieur au four. Cuisine actuelle, accessed on January 3, 2016 (French): “Préchauffez le four à 180 ° C. ... tranches de pain de mie "
  6. ↑ Thomas Röbke: Boque auf Croque: The croque was invented twenty years ago - not in France, for example, but in Hamburg . In: Scene Hamburg . Hamburger Stadtillustrierten-Verl.-Ges., October 1996, p. 38 .