What Is a Croute?
Mastering cooking terms is useful for both the chef and the dining connoisseur. In the French cooking vocabulary, the word "croute" (pronounced KROOT) means crust. This technique provides a meal, dessert or party food when the croute surrounds a variety of fillings to suit the palette of the most dedicated diner. Other meanings of this word have to do with specific preparations of food and food display.
Hollowing Out Round Bread
Using thick-crusted French round bread, cut across the top to make a lid. Scooping out the bread from the center using a large spoon makes this into a bowl croute. Popular in themed eateries, the crust bowl holds soups and stews. For parties the same crust bowl holds dips.
Croute Landaise
Special to French cooking is the croute landaise. Making this dish requires the croute be a fried or toasted slice of bread served with foie gras (goose or duck liver) and topped with landaise cheese sauce. Another popular food incorporating this style of preparation is Eggs Benedict. Placing eggs on top of the croute toast and covering with hollandaise cheese sauce is a favorite in America for brunch.
En Croute
"En croute" is a type of food preparation. Whether fully cooked beef, partially cooked fruit, or vegetables, or a fresh salmon, the filling is wrapped in pastry and then baked to complete the dish.
Fruit, Vegetable, Meat
Croute may surround sweet or meaty fillings. Pot pie is a basic croute covering vegetables and meat plus a thick gravy. Salmon-filled croute is another favorite of food aficionados. Preparing French onion soup requires toasted bread croute laid over the bowl of soup then covered with thick slices of Swiss or Parmesan cheese. Creativity is the mark of the innovative cook, and using the croute to express new ways to fill them is one option for expressing individuality.
Name of the Display Case
A display case that holds numerous shelves filled with varieties of croute offerings is also referred to as a croute.
Some Croute Tips
Cooking with croute means knowing best use the ingredients, cooking times and other tips to assure the dish is perfect. Wrapped croute creations begin with the dough rolled flat. Center precooked or partially cooked ingredients--whether sweet, spicy or meaty--on the flat pastry. Brush egg white on the edges of the pastry and fold it securely over the filling, pressing edges together. Brush butter over the entire pastry to ensure a golden-brown finish when removed from the oven. The usual baking time for any croute filling and to obtain the desired glow of the crust is 30 to 35 minutes in a 375 degree F oven. Since oven temperatures vary, be sure to check the croute after 20 minutes to determine any temperature adjustment.
Tags: bowl holds, cheese sauce, crust bowl, crust bowl holds, French cooking
