Monte Cristo Sandwich Recipe

In a earlier life, I traversed the nation each different week with the objective of figuring out the easiest food out there in every of America’s most beloved theme parks. (For work. I did this for work.) I ate issues I hope everybody will get the pleasure of consuming (Dollywood’s cinnamon bread crusted with apple butter). I ate issues nobody ought to ever, ever eat (what I can solely describe as “frosted soda” completely out there within the bowels of Hersheypark). I ate issues that stick to me to today just because they’re core memory-type issues, like Knott’s Berry Farm’s boysenberry-laden funnel truffles and turkey legs from…properly, in every single place. I ate so many fucking turkey legs.

After which there’s Disney. 

One of many issues I most frequently take into consideration having gotten to eat is Disneyland’s Monte Cristo, particularly the one out there at Café Orleans. I first had one in 2018 beneath golden fake firefly glow on a blistering Anaheim noon, looking for reprieve and actual sustenance in a approach Dole Whips and mousey beignets had not but supplied, and pricey god, it was that and extra. A Monte Cristo—that Monte Cristo—sits with you for a bit, each emotionally and bodily. You don’t want a lot else for greater than a minute when you’ve achieved it. Belief me! I’m…I am a theme park skilled, and so, so removed from a physician!

Many studying this received’t be shocked that there’s a storied relationship between Disney and this specific sandwich. Actually, most individuals I surveyed consider the Monte Cristo to have originated within the parks. (“Individuals” being the eight self-identified Disney adults in my life and nevertheless many you’ve gotten in yours, I’m assured.) Their Monte Cristo—numerous ham, rather less turkey, a lot Swiss cheese, fried, powdered sugared, all distinctly chopped into tall triangles for higher blackberry protect dipping—continues to be served in its authentic Nineteen Forties recipe kind at Café Orleans, smack within the heart of Disneyland’s New Orleans Sq.. It has been supplied persistently at totally different Disney eating places since at the least 1966, in line with the one hundredth anniversary version of Delicious Disney: Disneyland. 

And whereas Disney serves what individuals assume is the OG, the corporate doesn’t truly declare the Monte Cristo. “Whereas most followers establish the Monte Cristo with the Blue Bayou Restaurant in New Orleans Sq. at Disneyland, the sandwich is just not from the Crescent Metropolis,” Pam Brandon explains within the Disney-produced Delicious Disney: Walt Disney World: “[It’s] believed to have originated in Southern California. That will clarify the way it made its method to the commissary menu at The Walt Disney Studios in 1940.”

I like that, however I can’t discover a single particular person to authoritatively inform me the place the rattling factor truly originated. Disney reps pointed me again to that first aforementioned cookbook! What’s Cooking America says a Parisian cafè was accountable! Others assume a beefed-up, cheesier model of the croque monsieur should’ve simply arisen across the similar time the croque monsieur grew to become well-liked within the early 1900s (although le monsieur’s origin story is unclear as properly). As soon as the Monte Cristo was already well-liked, presumably due to the Disney increase, Bennigan’s, god bless them, triple-deckered the sandwich someplace within the aughts, making it much more well-liked and giving it a sweeter taste profile by way of honey wheat bread and raspberry preserves. I’ve discovered it’s the latter model that has trickled out throughout the nation, and that the perfect greasy spoon diners slap browned breakfast meats between two slices of shredded cheese-covered French toast after which level you to pre-packaged desk jellies for acceptable dipping.

The reality is, no one actually is aware of the place the rattling factor—as a result of I’m unsure what else you name “griddled, slathered, and cheese-coated protein squished betwixt thick eggy toast slices” apart from the rattling factor—got here from, neither is there a “appropriate,” standardized model. As with most issues, the perfect model of the reality lies someplace in the midst of the haze.

To develop the model of the Monte Cristo offered right here, our check kitchen created a centered and salty handful of a sandwich that excludes the turkey and goes arduous on the mustard. These decisions had been born of devoted testing: Our check kitchen cooks felt the turkey skewed the sandwich nearer to turkey membership or Cuban sandwich territory, whereas the stronger hit of mustard supplied a wanted pungency and umami to offset what’s in any other case simply too dang supersuper candy. 

As soon as assembled, the entire thing is battered and pan-fried to the anticipated stage of golden perfection. A small quantity of baking powder whisked into the batter raises its pH to advertise browning. It additionally creates tiny air pockets within the batter that kind as soon as heated. These tiny bubbles break up the feel of the batter for a lighter, crisper coating that I’m sure Disneyland would approve of. 

The sandwich pairs completely with raspberry jam, or you would dip it in Dijon to double down on that mustardy tang (this latter choice was most popular by some in our check kitchen). It’s decadent, it’s memorable, it’s buttery (however not overly so), and, boy, is it a large number. Do your self a favor and wait a couple of minutes earlier than carving into it to keep away from molten cheese oozing throughout your slicing board. Whereas I can attest that it is surprisingly nice in swampy warmth, certain, one may in all probability take pleasure in it on a cold day too.

And when you’re nonetheless sitting right here questioning why anybody would wish to eat such a mix of issues, you want to belief the method: the Monte Cristo is for vibes and thrills—a phenomenal factor everybody ought to get to expertise each few years till they’re emotionally ready to eat the subsequent one…and/or financially ready for his or her subsequent journey to Anaheim. 

Editor’s Observe: This recipe was developed by Catherine Jessee; the headnote was written by Tess Koman.