The Monte Cristo sandwich is a dish that combines two well-known culinary concepts: the croque monsieur and pain perdu or French toast.
For our recipe for a club sandwich, refer to this link. We have described how to prepare a delicious BLT sandwich here.
The exact origin of the Monte Cristo sandwich is not clearly documented. It is probably an American creation. It is also unclear when and why the name ‘Monte Cristo’ came into use. Whether the name is an allusion to Alexandre Dumas’ novel ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ cannot be said. And it is unlikely that anyone thought that far ahead when naming a sandwich, so the name was probably chosen more for its appealing sound.
The oldest recipes call for dusting with icing sugar and serving with fruit jam – we prefer not to do that.
Instead, we provide sandwich bread of our choice that is not cut too thinly (in our case, this is light bread from the local bakery), along with mayonnaise and Dijon mustard, classic cooked pork ham, cheese that melts well (in this case, cheddar) and egg with a little milk added. The sandwich is often prepared with turkey as well.
Spread mayonnaise on one slice of bread (you can read how to make your own here) and mustard on the other.
Then top each slice with cheese. Ham and turkey (if used) are placed in the centre. This is important so that the cheese can melt later. We arranged that very nicely and then simply forgot to take a photo. So here is an illustration:
Beat the egg and milk together, then place the sandwich in the mixture. After 3 minutes, during which time the bottom slice of bread will be soaked, turn it over.
Heat butter in a non-stick pan over medium high heat until it foams. Alternatively, you can use clarified butter. Then place the sandwich in the pan and immediately reduce the heat to medium (on our stove: 4 out of 10). If the heat is too high, the bread will toast without the cheese melting.
So it’s important to take your time. We also put a lid on so that the whole sandwich can heat up right through to the inside. It takes a few minutes for the bottom to turn golden brown – just keep checking on it.
Once it has reached the desired colour, turn the sandwich over and continue frying without the lid.
We place the finished sandwich briefly on kitchen paper to remove excess fat. Then we cut it diagonally. Side dishes are rather unnecessary here, but a green salad would go very well with it.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients (per sandwich):
1 egg
50 ml milk
2 slices of bread
Mayonnaise and Dijon mustard
Slices of cheese that melts well (e.g. cheddar, provolone)
Cooked ham
Optional: slices of cooked turkey
Butter or clarified butter for frying
