Croque Végétarien
Vegetarian croque with vegetables and cheese, no ham.
Croque-Monsieur
Croque-Tartiflette
Croque inspired by tartiflette with Reblochon, potatoes, and lardons.
Croque-Savoyard
Reblochon does not stretch, it runs. The croque-savoyard rebuilds the café ham-and-cheese around a soft washed-rind mountain cheese, with potato and lardons, until it eats like tartiflette in bread.
Croque Raclette
Croque made with raclette cheese; melty, rich.
Croque-Provençal
Croque-monsieur with tomatoes, herbs de Provence, and sometimes olives.
Croque-Poêlé
Pan-fried croque-monsieur rather than baked or grilled.
Croque-Norvégien
Cold-smoked salmon turns to dry chalk the instant it cooks, so the croque-norvegien guards it: buttered bread, melting cheese, dill creme fraiche, a grill that browns the top but leaves the fish cool.
Croque-Monsieur Classique
Traditional croque-monsieur with pain de mie, jambon, Gruyère, and béchamel; café standard.
Croque-Mademoiselle
Lighter croque, sometimes without béchamel or with less cheese.
Croque-Madame
Break the yolk with a fork and it floods the seams, becoming a second sauce. Underneath, a croque-monsieur is untouched; one fried egg changes the name, the texture, and the table manners.
Croque-Madame Parisien
Parisian-style croque-madame with perfectly runny egg.
Croque-Hawaïen
Croque-monsieur with pineapple added; French Hawaiian variation.
Croque-Forestier
Croque-monsieur with mushrooms (champignons) added.
Croque-Champignons
Mushroom-focused croque, sometimes vegetarian.
Croque-Bolognaise
Croque with bolognese sauce instead of or with ham.
Croque-Bleu
The blue-cheese cousin of the croque-monsieur, where the béchamel exists to tame a fierce Roquefort rather than moisten a mild gruyère, and a brasserie often slips pear and walnut inside to sweeten.
Croque-Auvergnat
The croque-monsieur rebuilt with the dairy of the Massif Central: tangy Cantal or a vein of Bleu d'Auvergne in place of the Alpine cheese, a rougher regional ham, the béchamel and the broiler kept.
Croque au Thon
The fish line on a brasserie's croque column: drained tuna folded into béchamel where the ham would go, broiled under cheese on soft square bread.
Croque-Monsieur
A ham-and-cheese that took a white sauce seriously: pain de mie, jambon de Paris, Gruyère, and a béchamel that soaks the crumb and lacquers the top gold under the broiler.