Croque madame

Taste and texture

Croque madame is a hot ham-and-cheese sandwich topped with an egg. White sauce and grated cheese may also be added before grilling. The final egg sits above the sandwich rather than being mixed into the filling. Cutting reveals the egg white and yolk over the bread, ham and melted cheese layers.

Bread can be toasted before or after assembly. Billy Parisi first browns both sides in butter, then adds mustard and ham. Nancy Anne Harbord assembles filled sourdough sandwiches before butter-frying them. Both develop a toasted surface and melted cheese, but use different assembly sequences.

Béchamel combines cooked butter and flour with milk. For this sandwich it is thick enough to sit on bread rather than run like soup. Harbord adds nutmeg, Gruyère and Parmesan, producing a creamy cheese-enriched layer above the sandwich as well as the cheese between the bread.

Mustard is spread inside the bread or beneath the ham. Parisi uses wholegrain mustard and also suggests Dijon. Its tang and pungency accompany the salty ham and cheese. Wholegrain seeds remain visible as small dots among the smoother ingredients.

Pan-toasting and top grilling develop different surfaces. Butter browns the bread; top heat creates brown spots in the cheese and sauce. Parisi places béchamel inside but sprinkles the top bread with grated Comté, leaving the upper cheese more exposed than in versions with sauce over the lid.

The egg is cooked separately and added last. A lightly fried egg has a set white and a yolk that may flow when cut. Alexandra Stafford instead drains a poached egg before putting it on the toast. The softness of a yolk depends on its actual cooking, not simply whether the egg is called fried or poached.

Stafford also makes an open-faced version: thick toast supports béchamel, ham and grated cheese, finished with thyme and a poached egg. Onion softened in butter and a bay leaf flavour the sauce. Without a top slice, the egg sits directly above the ham and cheese on a single bread layer.

A Great British Chefs variation uses shredded cooked ham hock and onions caramelised with beer inside sourdough. Its béchamel includes white miso and mozzarella, with Comté or Gruyère in the filling. The shredded meat has a more visible grain than sliced ham, alongside the sweetness of softened onions.

Stéphanie Le Quellec's version lists quail eggs, Beaufort cheese, sliced bone-in ham and black truffle. The bread edges are trimmed and the slices flattened during preparation. The smaller eggs and distinct ingredients give a different composition from a sandwich topped with one hen's egg, with truffle adding aroma.

Alain Ducasse's summer-vegetable adaptation uses sliced pepper, fennel, courgette and aubergine cooked with olive oil, plus garlic-rubbed toast. Tomato, romaine, basil and eggs are also listed. This vegetable-centred variant has a substantially different filling from the basic ham-and-cheese form.

The sandwich has several crisp and soft layers. Butter-toasted edges are savoury, thin ham is salty, and bread touching melted cheese or béchamel becomes moist. A browned top does not make the whole sandwich dry and crunchy.

Set egg white forms a soft layer, while a flowing yolk coats bread and cheese like sauce. Egg flavour spreads through the cut centre, with toasted bread and cheese more prominent at the edges. A poached egg brings a smooth, water-cooked white rather than the surface of a fried egg.

Dijon or wholegrain mustard adds tang and pungency among the cheese. Thyme or parsley supplies a fresh herb aroma. Parisi serves pickles, and the ham-hock recipe uses cornichons, adding crisp, bright-tasting bites beside the soft sandwich.

How to order it in Korea

1. Look for “croque madame” on the menu and make sure not to confuse it with “croque monsieur,” which comes without the egg.
2. Ask whether the topping is fried or poached and how firmly the yolk is cooked.