No. 780

Cheese Crusts

Croutes au Fromage

Cut slices of bread three-eighths of an inch thick, three and a half inches long, and one and three-quarters inch wide; fry them on one side only in butter, drain, and let get cold. Spread them over with fresh butter on the side they were not fried, mixing in with it some pepper and mustard. Cover the butter with slices of Chedder, Swiss, or Chestershire cheese, place on top another piece of buttered bread, and serve on folded napkins.

← No. 779 Celery Stalks, Celery, Fennel, Celery Hearts Cold Side Dishes No. 781 Clams or Raw Oysters on the half Shell →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold savoury from Ranhofer's Epicurean — essentially a small cheese sandwich built on bread fried on one face only. The odd construction is the whole point, and it is easy to lose.

Fry one side onlyThe unfried face stays soft and absorbent so it takes the mustard butter and grips the cheese; the fried face gives the outside its crispness. Frying both sides turns the thing into a dry toast sandwich. Use clarified butter or watch the heat closely, since whole butter at 3/8-inch bread thickness browns fast.
Let it go properly coldThis is filed under cold side dishes, not a melted crouton. Warm bread will soften the compound butter and slick the cheese. Cool the fried slices on a rack, not on paper flat, or the fried side steams and goes limp.
The dimensions matter3 1/2 by 1 3/4 inches, 3/8 inch thick, is a two-bite finger cut from a firm sandwich loaf. A soft modern supermarket loaf will tear when spread; use a close-crumbed pain de mie or a day-old white loaf.
Cheese names"Chedder" and "Chestershire" are Ranhofer's spellings of Cheddar and Cheshire. Cheshire is crumbly and lactic; slice it thick or it will fall apart. "Swiss" here means Emmental or Gruyere. All three should be cut in thin slices, not grated, since nothing is being melted.
The mustard butterNo quantities are given. For 8 oz of soft butter, about 2 teaspoons of English mustard powder or 1 tablespoon of prepared mustard, plus a good deal of black pepper, gives the sharpness the dish is built around. Beat it smooth and use it soft, not chilled.
The second sliceThe text says only "another piece of buttered bread"; whether the top piece is also fried on one side, and which face is buttered, is left unstated, though buttering the unfried face would set the two soft interiors against the cheese. The recipe gives no instruction to press or trim the finished sandwich.
Yield and serviceNo yield is given. Allowing two slices per crust, a loaf's worth of fingers will make roughly a dozen pieces. The recipe directs that they be served on folded napkins.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of that house's repertoire, running to more than a thousand pages and several thousand numbered items. The cold side dishes section is a catalogue of hors-d'oeuvre in the French service sense — small cold things set out at the start of a meal or offered alongside, of which celery stalks with fennel (No. 779) and clams or raw oysters on the half shell (No. 781) are the immediate neighbours here. Croutes au fromage sits at the edge of a broader family of Anglo-French cheese savouries that includes Welsh rarebit and the cheese straws and cheese ramekins that closed out formal English dinners; the choice of Cheddar, Cheshire or Gruyere is a British set of cheeses in a French-named preparation. That the cheese is sliced and left cold rather than melted keeps it in the cold service.