Those familiar with the French language would know that most people and items in the European nation are classified into male and female categories. Be it a table, pen, chair, or food, there’s hardly anything that is not defined by its gender. So much so that even the popular breakfast sandwiches in France haven’t been able to escape the ambit. Here, we’re talking about Croque Monsieur and Croque Madame.
Yes, they’re a couple. Rather, a sandwich couple! While, for the longest time, we believed that matchmaking only happens between two people, the French were busy coupling their sandwiches too. This is thought to have first appeared around 1910 in Parisian bistro menus.
However, the written records of Croque Monsieur were found only in 1918. There were mentions of it in the second volume of literary legend Marcel Proust’s seven-part novel, Search of Lost Time. While several stories around its origins circulate the French corners, there are two plausible ones that have come to surface. One suggests that the cheesy sandwiches were left near a radiator by French factory workers. Upon return during lunch, they found that their cheese had melted and the sandwich was hot and crispy.
Another tale points that the sandwich was a creation of a Parisian chef who packed meat and cheese in a sandwich bread and served it to a customer, as he was short of baguettes. Upon inquiry about its fillings, the chef remarked that “it was that guy’s meat”. Croque, for the unversed, is a French term to refer to crunch or to bite, while monsieur means sir. That’s how it came to be known as a gentleman’s sandwich.
Packed with ham and cheese, the defining feature of the sandwich was the way in which egg was used in it. The bread was dipped in lightly beaten eggs and then baked or fried till it turned crunchy and toasty. Also known as the French cheese toastie, the Croque Monsieur adapted the style of the French toast for using egg and the cheese used is usually Gruyere or Emmental. Generally, a sweeter version of white bread like brioche is used to prepare this sandwich and béchamel sauce, a combination of milk, fat and flour, is drizzled on top.
So how did the Croque Monsieur find his better half? Well, it is said that someone added a fried egg with the sunny side up on top of the ham and cheese sandwich and this ended up being called Croque Madame. The idea behind this was that the poached egg resembled a woman’s hat and, therefore, was an elegant sandwich that couldn’t be eaten with hands as it would get messy. To date, it is eaten with a fork and a knife. Nevertheless, it is the egg that is the distinguishing feature between a Croque Monsieur and a Croque Madame - the French sandwich couple.