Why do we say “a croque-monsieur”
Some attribute his name to a big-mouthed waiter in a Parisian café on the boulevard des capucins, a certain Michel Lunarca who allegedly replied to a customer who asked him what was in his croque monsieur that it was nothing less than human flesh. General laughter in the restaurant. What is certain is that we began to talk about it at the end of the 19th century, that we find it, the croque monsieur, in Marcel Proust’s “in the shade of young girls in bloom”.
In the dictionary since 1966
The Word appears in the dictionary of the French Academy since 1966 when the august assembly decreed that a croque monsieur is, I quote ” Dishes consisting of two slices of sandwich bread between which we have placed ham covered with cheese and which we pass in the oven »
The “official” croque-monsieur recipe
To make 4 croques monsieur, you need 8 slices of sandwich bread, which you brush with butter, you put a slice of cheese, rather Gruyère, on each slice, and on every other slice you put a slice of folded ham in two.
Then in a bowl, mix grated cheese, milk, salt, pepper and a little nutmeg, close the croque-monsieurs by placing the slices on top of each other, and sprinkle with the mixture from the bowl.
Then we go to the oven. You can also cook your croques monsieur in a pan, or with the famous croque monsieur machine born in the 70s.
French cuisine has some legendary recipes like croque monsieur, but above all it’s a lot of heart.