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Baked and breads

Croque monsieur

The Paris café sandwich of ham and Gruyère, topped with béchamel and grated cheese and browned in the oven.

A croque monsieur is a hot ham and cheese sandwich from the cafés of Paris. Slices of white bread enclose ham and Gruyère or Emmental, and the top is spread with béchamel and more cheese before grilling or baking. With a fried egg on top it becomes a croque madame. The verb croquer means to crunch.

What goes in

Gruyère or Emmental: 28%28%Pain de mie: 33%33%Cooked ham: 17%17%Béchamel: 17%17%Butter: 6%5parts
  • Gruyère or Emmental528%, Inside and grated on top.
  • Pain de mie633%, Soft white sandwich bread.
  • Cooked ham317%, Thin slices of jambon de Paris.
  • Béchamel317%, Spread over the top.
  • Butter16%, On the bread.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Simmer Make a thick béchamel and season it with nutmeg.
  2. Step 2: Grate Butter the bread and grate the cheese.
  3. Step 3: Layer Layer ham and cheese between two slices.
  4. Step 4: Layer Spread béchamel over the top and scatter with more cheese.
  5. Step 5: Bake Bake or grill until the top bubbles and browns.
  6. Step 6: Serve Serve hot, with a fried egg on top for a croque madame.
  7. Gruyère or Emmental: 28%28%Pain de mie: 33%33%Cooked ham: 17%17%Béchamel: 17%17%Butter: 6%
    Finished Croque monsieur, by share.

A café classic

The sandwich is first recorded on a Paris café menu in 1910, and Marcel Proust mentions it in a volume of In Search of Lost Time published a few years later. It suited cafés because it could be made quickly to order. Over the twentieth century it became a lunch and late-night standard all over France and in French-style bistros abroad.

Variations

Some cooks fry the sandwich in butter rather than baking it, and older versions leave out the béchamel altogether. The croque madame adds an egg, which some say looks like a lady's hat. Regional versions swap the cheese for local ones such as Reblochon or a blue cheese, and add tomato, smoked salmon or other fillings.

Where it is used

Café lunchLate-night snack

The cheeses in it

GruyèreThe usual café cheese.EmmentalCommon alternative.ComtéUsed in many home versions.

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Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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