{"id":28010,"date":"2016-07-28T13:52:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T17:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=28010"},"modified":"2016-07-28T13:52:35","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T17:52:35","slug":"get-cultured-croque-monsieur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/get-cultured-croque-monsieur\/","title":{"rendered":"Get Cultured: The Croque Monsieur"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are endless reasons to travel the world, but one always stands out: food.<\/em> Get Cultured<\/strong> takes you on a journey through cheesy dishes from different cultures (heyo), exploring how they came to be, what makes them significant, where you can find the real deal, and how you can make your own.<\/p>\n

Missed last week’s post on saag paneer? Check it out!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Forget what you know about ham and cheese—a croque monsieur<\/i> isn\u2019t your grade-school sandwich. Most sandwiches keep all of their cheese on the inside, but croque messieurs just aren\u2019t into those kinds of stifling limitations. A gooey concoction of ham, Gruy\u00e8re<\/a>, and b\u00e9chamel sauce, the elegant croque monsieur—\u201ccroque\u201d for short—has been enchanting Parisians for over a century.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo courtesy of smartfoto<\/a> via Shutterstock<\/a><\/small><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

As one might expect from the romantic Parisian canon, the collective imagination allows for several origin stories<\/a>. By some accounts, the French staple arose from the humblest of beginnings. In a modern-day twist on the story behind raclette<\/a>, legend has it that a group of French workmen had packed ham and cheese sandwiches in tins for lunch and left them unattended for a bit. When they returned, hungry, the realization that the \u201ctable\u201d they\u2019d left the sandwiches on was actually a radiator hit them like a ton of cheese; they opened their lunch pails to find hot, gooey ham-and-cheese sandwiches. It turned out okay in the end, though—no one stays upset about melted cheese for long.<\/p>\n

While that tale has the \u201cEureka!\u201d factor of an accidental discovery, it doesn\u2019t account for how the dish became so prevalent. A slightly more detail-oriented story, grounded in rough dates and general locations and somewhat less shrouded in the trappings of folklore, picks up the slack. A little bit.<\/p>\n

In the early 20th century, caf\u00e9 culture in Paris was just finding legs with the middle class. They say<\/a> that, in 1910, there was a brasserie on the Boulevard des Capucines—whose name may or may not<\/a> have been Le Trou dans le Mur<\/i> (\u201cthe hole in the wall\u201d)—that encountered a uniquely Parisian disaster one afternoon. That is, they ran out of baguettes. Mon dieu!<\/i><\/p>\n

But, the story goes, the resourceful chef made lemons into lemonade—or, as the case may be, made a different kind of bread into sandwiches. He’s said to have taken pain de mie<\/i>, which is similar to white sandwich bread, and put ham and cheese between slices of that instead. It wasn\u2019t as crispy, so he threw it in the oven to give it as close to a baguette-style crunch as he could, and what resulted was a delicious, crisp ham-and-cheese sandwich—a fortuitous consequence of what could have been a tragic, baguette-less apr\u00e8s-midi<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Croquer<\/em> means \u201cto bite,\u201d which is a straightforward enough name origin. The monsieur<\/em> half is a bit less guessable: The consensus is that a customer asked the chef about the meat, and the chef gestured to the local butcher, saying, \u201cC\u2019est la viande de monsieur<\/i>\u201d (\u201cIt\u2019s that guy\u2019s meat!\u201d). Say it with me—voil\u00e0<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Although the croque monsieur likely began as a simple combination of ham, cheese, and bread, it has evolved over the last century. The most popular incarnation, these days, begins with Gruy\u00e8re and thin slices of ham between two slices of buttered bread, grilled until crispy. After reaching peak crispiness, it is topped with b\u00e9chamel sauce and grated cheese and broiled for a few minutes. The resulting dish, ubiquitous in caf\u00e9s across Paris and beyond, is a rich, golden sandwich that you\u2019d be hard-pressed to eat without a fork and knife. The croque eventually gave rise to its egg-dipped American counterpart, the Monte Cristo<\/a>, and several variations on the original croque continue to pop up on French menus as well. The most popular is the croque madame<\/em>, so called because the poached or fried egg that sits atop it evokes the image of a lady\u2019s hat.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo courtesy of Henry Lien<\/a> via Shutterstock<\/a><\/small><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

For a truly Parisian croque monsieur, Caf\u00e9 des Phares<\/a> is the place to go. Not only does it boast a magnifique<\/i> sandwich, but it also it provides a unique experience: A \u201ccaf\u00e9-philo<\/a>,\u201d the restaurant provides a space to discuss big questions about life and r\u00e9fl\u00e9chir en commun<\/i> (\u201cthink together\u201d); it is as stimulating intellectually as it is gastronomically.<\/p>\n

Croques don\u2019t have to be far away, though, to be delectable. Stateside, Caf\u00e9 Madeleine<\/a> in the South End of Boston is a great option. And for a homespun version, try this recipe<\/a> that swaps b\u00e9chamel sauce for cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche, making preparation less labor-intensive. Bon app\u00e9tit<\/i>!<\/p>\n

Feature Photo Credit: D Pimborough<\/a> | Shutterstock<\/a><\/small><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sandwich of your Parisian dreams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":28011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"coauthors":[875],"class_list":["post-28010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGet Cultured: The Croque Monsieur - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/get-cultured-croque-monsieur\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Get Cultured: The Croque Monsieur\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The sandwich of your Parisian dreams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/get-cultured-croque-monsieur\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-28T17:52:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/shutterstock_287980880.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Caroline Fenn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Caroline Fenn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/get-cultured-croque-monsieur\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/get-cultured-croque-monsieur\/\",\"name\":\"Get Cultured: The Croque Monsieur - 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