- 6 minutes ago
Learn how to make Croque Monsieur with master French chef Alexia Duchêne. Alexia breaks down every step behind one of France's most iconic sandwiches, from making a classic roux and silky béchamel to choosing the best bread, ham, and cheese for the ultimate golden, gooey finish.
Feeling inspired? Follow this recipe to make your own at home: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/bistro-style-croque-monsieur
Feeling inspired? Follow this recipe to make your own at home: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/bistro-style-croque-monsieur
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Croque Monsieur is the ultimate French sandwich.
00:04It's special because it combines everything France loves,
00:07cheese, bread, and ham.
00:09There is an art in making the perfect sandwich.
00:11You know, it's much more complex than people think.
00:14The first step is going to be to make the roux.
00:17To begin, we need to warm some milk,
00:19and I love to bring a bit of aromatics to the milk,
00:22just with a touch of thyme to infuse
00:24and to bring a bit more complexity to the sauce.
00:27When you're cooking with milk,
00:28I would always go full fat.
00:30Honestly, when you don't have any fat milk,
00:32it's basically water,
00:33so you might as well cook with water.
00:35It's important that all the almonds
00:37when you're cooking are on the same temperature.
00:39So basically adding cold milk to a bechamel,
00:42you might have lumps because you're not going fast enough
00:44and because the cold element is going to solidify the butter
00:48and therefore not have something that's super smooth.
00:50Bechamel is a preparation that we'll use
00:53in a lot of different preparations in France.
00:55It's basically warm milk that you incorporate into a mixture of equal parts flour and butter.
01:03It has been lightly cooked off to cook up the flour.
01:06It's going to bring this gravy texture quite silky
01:10and really bring this nice charred cheese feel.
01:14So to start the bechamel, you want to add your butter and the flour.
01:19The ratio of the butter and the flour is 50-50.
01:22You want equal parts.
01:24This is what the mixture is called, the roux.
01:26So you cook it off for like two, three minutes.
01:28People make mistakes when they're making roux because when you have too much butter,
01:32it actually separates and there's not enough flour to hold on to the butter.
01:38So you have like a split sauce.
01:40For the roux, in this instance, we're not looking for any color.
01:43The bechamel should be kind of white, light yellow.
01:46So here we have the roux that's cooked.
01:48It's starting to bind better than the first stages.
01:51We just need to add the milk.
01:54So the milk should be added in maybe three stages.
01:57The first stage is where you don't want to incorporate too much
02:00because the idea is to bind everything together.
02:03But you need to go bit by bit.
02:05Don't try and be a hero and put too much.
02:08Otherwise, you won't be able to rectify it.
02:11Even if you see lumps at the beginning, don't be scared to just whisk.
02:14It's going to go away.
02:15If the milk is at the right temperature, don't be afraid.
02:19You might think that you messed up.
02:22But look how it looked like a second ago and now how it's starting to look.
02:26It's all good.
02:27The pan you're looking for when making bechamel is something that doesn't have corners.
02:32But you don't want angles because these angles are not going to be easy to
02:36kind of reach with your spatula or whisk.
02:40Now we're just going to season the bechamel.
02:43Simple.
02:43Salt.
02:45Say two pinches.
02:47It's important to taste anyway.
02:49But because we're going to add cheese, you don't want to go crazy.
02:52A touch of nutmeg.
02:53I'm actually not a fan of nutmeg, but I feel like this is traditional.
02:57This is what French people put in every croque monsieur.
03:01So I'm just going to go and put a touch, not too much.
03:04I feel like nutmeg has been a bit overused in French cuisine.
03:07And especially like at school lunches, we would have a lot of things that were quite heavy on nutmeg.
03:13So it's just like a childhood souvenir that I wasn't a big fan of, you know.
03:17Perfect.
03:18So we have great consistency.
03:20Seasoning is done.
03:21We just need to add the cheese.
03:23The sauce was made in three steps.
03:25So we started with the roux, which is the flour and the butter cooked off.
03:29We added milk.
03:31It became a bechamel.
03:32And now we're adding cheese and it's becoming a mornay.
03:35Mornay is when you add cheese to the bechamel.
03:38To have this kind of like cheesy sauce, like you would put on like nachos basically.
03:43So it's our nacho queso sauce in France.
03:48For the cheese inside the mornay, I'm going to use Comté, which is extremely traditional.
03:54It has really nice flavor, good balance.
03:58It's sharp.
03:59It's not too mild.
04:00It has good structure.
04:02So two different cheeses for this recipe.
04:04People typically go for Gruyère or even Emmental in their Crop Monsieur.
04:08The perfect blend for me is a cheese that has character, has complexity and intensity,
04:14but not too much that it takes away from the ham.
04:16So the cheese that I particularly love in A Croque Monsieur is Raclette.
04:21It's not classic.
04:22It's also wintery, but I feel like with a nice salad, it'll balance it out.
04:28So I think having the nice and the complexity of Comté, but the melting point and the very
04:34like gooey decadence of Raclette is kind of the best of both worlds.
04:38The Comté needs to be grated with a box grater.
04:41The ratio for the mornay is as much as you want it to be.
04:44I mean, we're not going to lie, this is not a light sandwich.
04:47It's really all about more is more.
04:50So we will put quite a bit of it.
04:52When you have a bechamel that's like piping hot,
04:55the cheese might split because of the temperature.
04:58So you want something that's warm, warm enough that it melts, but not piping hot.
05:03So I'm just going to whisk it again to make sure we have no lumps.
05:05And then we're just going to add a big handful.
05:10This is like a great texture.
05:12You're looking for something that will be spoonable,
05:15will be easily spreadable on top of your sandwich.
05:18One thing I love about this sandwich is that you can actually like kind of meal prep it.
05:23You can do a bunch of them, put the bechamel that's cold on top,
05:27and just like put them in the freezer and defrost it whenever you want it.
05:31So it's great for, you know, weeknight, last minute dinner.
05:35The bechamel is not as unstable as people might think.
05:39It's actually super easy to warm back up.
05:42You just have to make sure that you're not warming it on too high heat.
05:47And putting a bit of plastic wrap on the contact directly on the bechamel,
05:53just so it doesn't dry out and create lumps.
05:56Now onto the fridge for half an hour.
05:59So the construction of the sandwich, you have two slices of bread,
06:02a thin layer of mustard.
06:04That's not necessarily conventional.
06:06In the middle, you have some ham and some cheese, bread.
06:10And then on top, you have the bechamel, which will completely coat the sandwich
06:14and really like bring this nice like charred cheese.
06:18Now it's time to talk bread.
06:20There are two different teams in France, at least.
06:23It's either sourdough bread or the pound mie.
06:26I chose pound mie.
06:27So let's cut it.
06:28Pound mie is basically French milk bread.
06:31I feel like compared to the Japanese milk bread, it's a lot denser.
06:37You know, it doesn't like squish as much.
06:39Like I'm pressing quite hard here and you see that there's nothing going on.
06:43So I feel like it's the perfect toasted sandwich bread for me.
06:47What I love about a sourdough croque monsieur is obviously taste, this like tanginess.
06:52The cons of using sourdough is like all the different holes from the sourdough,
06:56which when you put mustard, when you put bechamel, creates a very uneven sandwich.
07:03Pre-sliced white bread will honestly do the trick.
07:06What you're looking for, if you're looking for something in the supermarket,
07:09is something that doesn't have too much sugar in it.
07:11I feel like the sugar and like typical supermarket white bread
07:15will kind of bring a lot of imbalance in the taste.
07:19I love slicing my own bread because I could choose the thickness.
07:24Something that's not too thin, not too thick.
07:26Roughly, I would say 1.5 centimeters.
07:30Ham.
07:31I feel like there are many ways that you can mess up the sandwich if you don't have the right
07:36ham.
07:36My preference is either jamon paris, which is like the typical French ham.
07:42But it's a ham that has very little intervention.
07:45You're not looking for too many spices, too many aromatics, no sugar.
07:49It's quite dry when you look at it.
07:51It's not like, you know, when you buy ham at the supermarket,
07:53there's this like layer of like moisture.
07:56If you can find French ham, I love the Italian hams that you get at delis.
08:02The grand biscotto, prosciutto cotto.
08:06For thickness though, I like to go quite thin and to put a lot of it.
08:09I think it brings more layers than to go for something a bit thicker.
08:13But then again, that's my personal preference.
08:16Some people like to keep the fat on the ham.
08:18I personally do not.
08:20I will trim the fat just because I feel like, I don't think, I don't think it's very enjoyable,
08:24like chewing on a piece of warm ham fat in a cauldron monsieur.
08:29But that's really my thing.
08:31I'm just going to put it in little bunches like that.
08:35Perfect.
08:36Whenever you're ordering cauldron monsieur, you will always get a salad.
08:39It's also a good balance.
08:42The cauldron monsieur is extremely rich and you want something that cuts through the fat.
08:46So before building the sandwich, I'm going to take care of the vinaigrettes.
08:50What I'm going to do with the vinaigrettes is have a balance of heat with the mustard,
08:56sweetness with honey and acidity with vinegar, which will cut through the fat.
09:01I like the quite like strong mustard.
09:04One spoon of that.
09:05Salt.
09:07Two pinches.
09:09Some fresh cracked black pepper.
09:12My favorite, sour whack.
09:14I think it has this intensity and this like toasty, meaty notes.
09:21I think that grinding fresh spices in general is extremely different than having something that's
09:29like already grind like months ago.
09:32I like a mortar and pestle just because of the visual aspect.
09:36I feel like sometimes with a pepper grinder, I'm not looking exactly at what I want.
09:40And here I can just like, I don't know.
09:42It's also like romantic in a way, you know, it's like the old way you want to do it.
09:46It's like the crafts.
09:47So we're looking for something that has a bit of texture, but not too much.
09:52When you're building a vinaigrette, it's extremely important to start with mustard
09:57if you're putting any, and then acid, salt, the salt will dissolve in the vinegar.
10:03If you start with oil, you will not be able to have something that emulsifies it.
10:09I like honey and vinaigrettes.
10:10I think it brings this nice sweetness that makes you kind of crave salad.
10:16And the idea is to just go bit by bit, very gentle in your olive oil.
10:23Emulsifying is basically binding two things that should not be together, together.
10:27We have a good amount of vinaigrette.
10:30Also, I like to loosen it up a bit with water just because I hate a thick salad vinaigrette.
10:37The only thing that I will add to the salad is some raw shallots, just for tang, texture.
10:44This sharpness is going to cut through the fat.
10:47Perfect.
10:48Okay, the vinaigrette is done.
10:50Now it's time to build the croque monsieur.
10:52So we have two slices of bread.
10:55I like to put a touch of mustard just for a little kick on one side.
11:00Dijon mustard is the best mustard.
11:03It's not sweet.
11:04It's really strong.
11:05You want that really, really strong taste that kind of takes you up in the nose,
11:10and you're not sure if you're enjoying it or if it's the worst moment of your life.
11:14It's been named after the city of Dijon, which originally made it.
11:19What makes it special is basically the seeds, which are much stronger than the American ones we find here.
11:25I'm just going to put a very thin layer on one side of the sandwich.
11:30You want to make sure you're putting cheese on every side of the sandwich.
11:34Otherwise, you're going to have one side that's stuck to the bread and the other one will not be.
11:39We're going to use a raclette, put the bread on the side and take a little peeler.
11:49Just like slice some very thin raclette.
11:53You don't want to go crazy on the cheese.
11:55More is not always better.
11:57It's all about balance.
11:58Here we're pretty good.
12:00Then we'll go in with the ham.
12:02I like when there's a pretty decent layer of ham,
12:05because don't forget that the mornay on top will be extremely rich.
12:10When you cook the croque monsieur, like a lot of people just will put this in a broiler like that
12:14with the bechamel on top.
12:16Why I don't like this?
12:17You're going to have a top layer that's quite mushy.
12:20I think that's a bit sad.
12:21Hot pan, drizzle of oil.
12:25Using some sort of weight will give you a really nice, even toastiness.
12:30If you don't have a weight, you can use another pan.
12:33You can use your hands.
12:36Honestly, like just also pressing it, especially at the beginning when it's not too hot.
12:41You're just giving this like even layer and then you can start letting go.
12:46A spoon of butter.
12:48A lot of mistakes people make when they make a croque monsieur, but even a grilled cheese I think
12:51is coloring the bread too fast and then the cheese is not melted.
12:57So you want to take your time.
12:58You want to make sure that both of these things come together and like don't be afraid of flipping it
13:04regularly instead of just like doing everything on one side and then the other.
13:12That's what you're looking for.
13:14Nice brown, not burnt.
13:18And the second layer is sometimes a bit trickier because you have a bit of browning in the butter
13:24so it can burn a bit more.
13:26So just add a touch of butter to kind of like that cool off and stop the heavy browning.
13:34Now that we have the color that we're looking for, we're not looking for more browning.
13:38It's just about this constant flipping every minute or two just to make sure that the heat
13:43that's in the bottom, we flip it, it goes back to the bottom and then we flip it again then
13:47kind of like plays this game of like rising to the center.
13:52You know, a lot of croque monsieur, if they're not done properly, you'll have cold ham in the center
13:57and that's not really nice.
13:58For me, I would rather it being a 10 minute cooking time and having something that is
14:04the best thing I've ever had than trying to rushing it and maybe cooking it in two, three minutes
14:09and having something that's kind of like meh.
14:10You can see that the cheese is melting and sticking to the bread.
14:14So I'm going to leave that here for a sec.
14:16Final part of the sandwich, putting the morning back on the croque monsieur
14:21and then onto a sheet tray and in the oven.
14:25So the morning is cold. Why it's a good thing?
14:28It's going to be easy to spread a pretty decent amount.
14:33You want this kind of like gooey feel onto a tray, then onto the oven.
14:40If you don't have a tray, you can use the pan that you use for cooking.
14:44While the croque monsieur is in the oven, I'm going to season my salad.
14:48So here I have a mix. There's some mustard, sorrel, amaranth, a bunch of different nice greens from the markets.
14:56I like to use my fingers instead of like a spoon just because I feel like I can actually work
15:01that salad.
15:02I can get all the dressing incorporated instead of just like coating it.
15:07We have the shallots here. They're marinated. Looks so good.
15:12I think that dressing should always be mixed in instead of like just put on top or on the side.
15:19Having that dressing mix perfectly with whatever you're putting in your salad is what makes the salad magical.
15:25You know, when you go to a restaurant, you're like that salad is so good.
15:28I will never be able to make it at home. This is exactly what we do.
15:31So we have our salad ready for when the croque is out of the oven.
15:37Also in France, we don't say croque monsieur. We say croque.
15:39It's like just the first word, you know. If you want to be a real friend, you just say,
15:43I'm going to make myself a croque. A croque is a bite. So it's even like Mr. Bite, basically.
15:49I'm really looking for a certain color, like this perfect golden brown.
15:54And I just don't want to miss the mark. So I'm just going to watch it for the whole time.
15:58It's like my favorite show, you know. So we have the perfect croque monsieur.
16:04Perfect char on top. This helicule comes from the bechamel. I cut it in half.
16:12This is exactly what you're looking for. The nice ratio of ham and cheese in the morning.
16:18That's really like you could feel like nice and gooey, but kind of holds its shape as well.
16:26Nice dose of greens. You can want to taste the croque monsieur while it's still like hot.
16:34I use fork and knife and then I use my fingers.
16:39I feel like croque monsieur is always too messy to eat with just your fingers.
16:47It's so good. The nutmeg just hits right. And the thyme that I infused in the milk comes out.
16:53I mean, this is honestly like a grilled cheese on steroids.
16:58And then a bit of salad for good measure.
17:02This is a full meal right here. Bon appétit!
17:05This is a full meal right here.
17:08Amen.
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