Quiche (Quiche Lorraine and Derivatives)

Ingredients

• For the pâte brisée shell
• 1 pâte brisée shell, blind-baked to pale golden, fully baked, not par-baked; blind-baked and still warm when filled
• For the custard
• 3 large eggs, whisked with cream until homogeneous — do not aerate
• 300 ml heavy cream, minimum 35% fat
• For the filling
• 150 g lardons, cut 1 cm dice from unsmoked or smoked streaky bacon slab; blanched 2 minutes in boiling water, then sautéed until golden
• 80 g AOC Gruyère, aged minimum 6 months, finely grated
• to taste fine salt, season after tasting — lardons, cheese, and cream all carry salt

Method

1. 1
   Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil. Add the lardons and blanch for 2 minutes to remove excess salt. Drain and pat dry. Set a frying pan over medium heat and sauté the lardons until golden and the fat has rendered. The lardons are ready when they carry colour and the fat in the pan is clear and fragrant.
2. 2
   In a bowl, whisk the eggs and cream together until the mixture is fully homogeneous. Do not whisk to aeration — the surface should be flat, not frothy. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve to remove any unincorporated egg white strands. Taste, and season with salt only as needed, accounting for the salt carried by the lardons, cheese, and cream.
3. 3
   Place the blind-baked, still-warm pastry shell on a baking sheet. Scatter the sautéed lardons and the finely grated Gruyère evenly across the base. Pour the custard slowly over the filling to within 3–4 mm of the rim — the custard will rise slightly before settling and will spill if over-filled. The surface should be flat and free of bubbles.
4. 4
   Slide the quiche into an oven set to 160–170 °C. Bake low and slow. During baking, monitor the surface: correctly developing custard is flat, matte, and pale cream, with perhaps a faint colour where custard meets pastry. No bubbles, no cracks, no mottling. A slightly scorched milk smell signals the oven is too hot and the custard is curdling at the base — reduce temperature immediately. The quiche smells done when the aroma shifts from raw egg to a warm, settled custard.
5. 5
   This is where the dish lives or dies. Open the oven and tap the tin gently. The entire quiche should show a 5 cm area of cohesive tremble at the centre — unified movement, not sloshing. The edges must be set; only the central zone trembles. If the entire quiche moves as liquid, return it to the oven. If it shows no movement whatsoever, it is overcooked. Remove at the tremble: carryover heat will finish the centre.
6. 6
   Rest the quiche on a wire rack for 20 minutes before cutting. To slice, draw a sharp knife through the custard in a single, clean stroke. The blade should pass through without the custard tearing, smearing, or collapsing. If the custard flows on cutting, it was under-baked. If it crumbles, it was over-baked. A correctly rested, correctly baked quiche yields like silk set in pastry.