Here's what the Grand Larousse Electronique (© 2007) food and cooking
encyclopedia says about the French sandwich called un croque-monsieur:
Sandwich chaud, formé de deux tranches de pain de mie beurrées, garnies de lamelles de gruyère et d'une tranche de jambon maigre. Le croque-monsieur est doré sur les deux faces, soit dans une poêle, avec du beurre, soit sous le gril.*
On peut napper le dessus d'une béchamel au gruyère et faire gratiner, ou remplacer le jambon par du blanc de volaille, le gruyère par du gouda, ou même ajouter une rondelle de tomate, voire d'ananas.**
Le premier croque-monsieur fut servi en 1910 dans un café du boulevard des Capucines, à Paris. Resté une préparation typique des cafés, brasseries et snacks, il constitue aussi une entrée ou un hors-d'oeuvre chaud.***
We ate our lunchtime croque-monsieur sandwiches with home-made French fries yesterday.
French Wikipédia adds:
L'origine du mot reste [...] inconnue, même si certains avancent plusieurs théories, la plus répandue étant que le bistrotier du café ait lancé, sous forme de boutade, que la viande à l'intérieur du sandwich était de la chair humaine.****
* A hot sandwich made with two slices of buttered loaf bread garnished with thin slices of Gruyère cheese and a slice of lean ham. The sandwich is browned on both sides, either in a frying pan or on a griddle.
** On the top of the sandwich is sometimes spread with a béchamel sauce made with Gruyère and browned in the oven. Sometimes the slice of ham is replaced by sliced white meat of chicken, the Gruyere by Gouda cheese. You can even add a slice of tomato or of pineapple.
*** The first such sandwich was served in 1910 in a café on the boulevard near the Paris Opera. It has remained a sandwich typically served in cafés and snack bars, and can also be served as a hot hors-d'oeuvre or first course.
**** The origine of the name croque-monsieur (croquer means to bite into something crunchy, and monsieur means man of course) is unknown, though people have offered various theories. The most widespread explanation is that the café-owner who invented the sandwich might have joked that the meat inside the sandwich was not ham but human flesh.
Your pain de mie looks amazing as does the sandwich. Got a new verb out of this post: "napper." To coat something.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!
ReplyDeleteFor the francophiles here on this blog, croquer means also to sketch. A croquis is a sketch. On the other hand, a croque-mitaine is a boogeyman!
ReplyDeleteOn a more lugubrious note, there is also croque-mort which means undertaker! Charming family of croque-something!
DeleteDon't forget about the croquembouche.
DeleteLoved this croque-a-thon! I'm the native English speaker, if you count American as English, and I had to look up lugubrious to remember what it means. Ha!
DeleteI see why you wanted to make the pain de mie- yum yum! Enjoyed learning some history and some new french words.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the food and language lessons!
ReplyDeleteHomemade French fries always remind me of my Dad. He made the best!
ReplyDeleteWalt has a method for homemade pommes frites. Give them their first cooking in the oil at a fairly low temperature — lower than what most recipes call for. Then you get a better result when you cook them in much hotter oil for a couple of minutes just before eating them.
DeleteThanks for that tip!
DeleteWalt says he heats the oil in the fryer up to 350F, puts in the potatoes, and immediately turns the fryer down to 210 or so. When the fries are tender, he lifts the fryer basket out of the oil and lets them cool for 10 minutes or more. Then he gives them a high-temperature fry until they are golden. The other day, he didn't bother to peel the potatoes, and the skins gave good flavor.
DeleteThese are like grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, no? So do you eat those with knife and fork, or do you slice and pick up, as with a regular sandwich? Either way, it looks yummy.
ReplyDeleteYou have to eat it with a knife and fork because there's béchamel sauce on the top slice of bread. It would be too messy to pick up. The croque is a fancy grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Actually, the béchamel is optional.
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