The croque-monsieur is a pillar of French counter service gastronomy and is very popular in France and around the world. A hot sandwich made of sliced bread, white ham and cheese, it was born in Paris in the early 1900s where it was given this name, apparently referring to a strange urban legend...
Traditional dish of the Parisian bistro, the croque-monsieur would have an ancestor... aboriginal! It is indeed in Australia that the principle of toasting two slices of bread containing meat appeared several centuries ago but it is well in France that the current recipe appears more than 100 years ago. Notably evoked by Proust in "In the shade of young girls in bloom" in 1919, the hot sandwich was officially proposed on the menu of a Parisian café in 1910 even if its recipe was already known since at least 1891.
If it became popular at the beginning of the 20th century, it is because it emerged from the strong competition that bistros and cafés were facing during the golden age of restaurants in Paris. One lunchtime, the Bel-Âge, whose inexpensive sandwiches attracted a lot of people, ran out of baguettes: the owner had the idea of using sliced bread and browning and crisping this combination of 2 square slices, ham and cheese in the oven. An immediate success!
The word "croque" has long designated bread bathed in beaten egg before being toasted. The crispness and the presence of bread in this recipe could explain the first part of the word but what about the second and strange "monsieur"? It would come from a joke made by the owner of the Bel-Âge when he improvised this sandwich based on sliced bread: to the question of a customer asking which meat he had put between the 2 slices, the bistrotier answered "de la viande de monsieur" ("gentleman's meat").
A joke that would certainly not have left a mark if the boss in question had not had, for several years now, the reputation of being... cannibal! Not sure that this reassured the suspicious customer but, for the owner of this café on the Boulevard des Capucines, the opportunity to make fun of his unfounded reputation was surely too irresistible.
The invention of the croque-madame is not due to this mischievous shopkeeper, as this variation of the recipe appeared much later. It is to the addition of an egg to the dish that we owe the feminization of the dish: it would indeed evoke the hat of the women of the time and, by reinforcing the flavor of this sandwich decidedly apart, it would please more the ladies whose taste is, it is well known, finer than that of these gentlemen 😊.
Here's a good recipe to get you started, with or without eggs. And to prepare this atypical dish, which entered the dictionary in 1948, this list of the best croque-monsieur machines will provide you with the right equipment to satisfy both young and old with this now classic bistro dish.
Valérie from Comme des Français
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