French food, unlike most world cuisines, emphasise a lot on the cook and cooking techniques which enable them to showcase some of the finest food in culinary history. What makes French food so unique is its simplicity that is achieved as a result of fine-tuned cooking and high quality ingredients. While comfort food isn’t really the barometer when it comes to the cuisine, certain classics like the croque monsieur or croque madame, famous sandwiches known for their cheesy outer crust don’t fall far behind.
These hot sandwiches, made with simple ingredients like white bread, cheese, ham and eggs, originated in French cafes almost a century ago. While the origins of these sandwiches are hazy for the most part, it is said that when a factory worker stood too close to a pile of hot coals, the cheese in his sandwich melted, making way for the croque monsieur. Typically, these sandwiches are made of baked or boiled ham which is sliced thin, Gruyere cheese and topped off with a silken bechamel sauce for extra creaminess and flavour.
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However, there is but a slight difference in both these French sandwiches; in that, the croque monsieur sandwich is made with the bread dipped into a slurry of eggs (similar to French toast), before it is fried in a pan or an oven. On the other hand, a croque madame is simply a croque monsieur topped off with a poached or fried egg. Although both the sandwiches have pretty much the same ingredients, the style in which eggs are incorporated in both recipes is what makes them differ.
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It is said that these sandwiches featured on the menus of Parisian bistros as early as the 1910’s. The recipes for these hot sandwiches are pretty straightforward in the sense that you assemble them like you would a regular ham and cheese sandwich and pour over a healthy dose of bechamel on top before scorching it in a broiler. But calorie-counters beware, these sandwiches are anything but modest in appearance, taste or indulgence!