French Quiche Lorraine Recipe

French Quiche Lorraine Recipe is a classic quiche from my childhood.

My Mama and grandmother always prepared this gorgeous quiche for lunch or dinner with a little salad.

Learn how to make an easy French quiche Lorraine from scratch with the dough and crust as well with our family recipe from the Lorrain.

Classic Quiche Lorraine is part of our French heritage.

Commonly prepared in all French homes, quiche makes a filling meal for the whole family.

Our quiche lorraine is an authentic recipe and I think absolutely the best quiche lorraine recipe out there.

What is quiche lorraine?

Quiche (pronounced as Keesh in English) are savory open-faced french shortcrust pies, filled and baked with an egg cream (omelette/frittata kind of) mixture.

Sometimes you have dishes, such as the Onion Tart, which are kind of quiche but are known as Tart locally, those are prepared nearly the same way as a conventional quiche.

The Quiche Lorraine Recipe is the mother of all quiche, most modern quiche recipes are often based on this French classic.

Where is Quiche Lorraine from?

The name of this particular quiche indicates that the quiche lorraine is a regional specialty from the Lorraine in France.

The Lorraine is situated in the northeast of France bordering Alsace and the famous champagne regions, besides the countries Luxembourg and Germany.

Lorraine and Alsace where often while part of the German empire in the past and so the name Quiche originated from the German word Kuchen (meaning cake).  

I sourced this info from the Larousse Gastronomique.

The original name for quiche in the Lorraine is féouse.

In the rest of France, quiche is the name given to this dish.

My great-grandfather was from that region when he had to flee because he had placed the French flag on his house.

The Germans were ruling the area at that time and burned down the whole house with his family when he was out of the house.

Quiche Lorraine Ingredients

A traditional classic quiche lorraine always consists of a pastry, so-called simple shortcrust pastry, and a filling prepared with egg and cream.

These are the following ingredients you will need to make an irresistible easy quiche lorraine from scratch.

For the Quiche Lorraine Shortcrust pastry:

• Butter
• All-Purpose Flour
• Salt
• Water

For the Quiche Lorraine Filling:

• Egg
• Milk
• All-Purpose Flour
• Ham or smoked pork belly lard (eventually in the English speaking countries, bacon can be used too)
• Cheese
• Black Pepper
• Nutmeg
• fresh Chives to garnish

Ingredients added or removed doesn't make this a quiche lorraine but another quiche variety.

For example, if you add spinach you will have a quiche florentine.

If you remove the ham, it won't be a quiche.

Something like a vegan/vegetarian quiche Lorraine actually doesn't exist. You would just call it a quiche by itself because a quiche lorraine includes ham/lard.

Other Quiche varieties:

• Quiche provençale - with Tomatoes
• Quiche au fromage - with Cheese only
• Quiche au champignion - with Mushrooms
• Quiche au saumon - with salmon
• Tarte a l'ognion - with onion (comes from the Picardie region and that's why it's not called a quiche)

... and the sacrilege Quiche variations (the ones which shouldn't be but they are because people love these quiches)

• Quiche au thon - with Tuna
• Quiche au asperge - with Asparagus

What Cheese for Quiche Lorraine?

The authentic quiche lorraine recipe doesn't include any cheese, however, most people make it with cheese all over France.

A ham quiche lorraine with cheese just tastes all the better because the cheese makes a crust over the quiche but of course, again to make it clear, the real quiche lorraine is without cheese.

Pick a milder/semi-sharp tasting cheese that melts well with a normal fat amount.

You can use one of the following cheese variations:

• Emmenthal
• Comté
• Gruyere (mild version)
• Cheddar (mild version)

Can I make Quiche Lorraine without eggs?

No. Eggs are the main ingredient in a quiche Lorraine

Can you freeze Quiche Lorraine?

Yes, although it's not commonly done at all.

You would be better off making a fresh one.

If you must freeze, place the baked and cooled down quiche as a whole into some kind of an aluminum tray and cover with aluminum.

Place into the freezer and freeze for up to max 2 months.

I would not suggest freezing a raw whole quiche. Instead, prepare the dough, refrigerate as you would normally and roll out.

Then just roll the dough between butter paper and freeze that way.

This is your best option.

Useful Tools

• Tart/Quiche Pan in Porcelain. You can directly serve the quiche in that as seen in the pictures.
• Silicon Pastry Baking Mat  comes with the diameters to cut the shape
• Stand Mixer if you don't want to make the dough by hand

What to serve with Quiche Lorraine for Lunch or Dinner?

We always serve a French quiche Lorraine with some kind of a salad.

Because the quiche lorraine is a typical summer meal, we tend to harvest the green beans and various salads from the garden.

That means light salads are served with Quiche Lorraine.

You can serve any of the following salads with this easy quiche lorraine recipe:

• Simple green salad (lettuce, iceberg, rocket, romaine) or sliced fresh tomato with a french vinaigrette or herbal dressing
• Green Bean Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette
• Radish Salad
• french/green bean salad with vinaigrette
• tuna asparagus salad
• Carrot Salad
• Coleslaw
• Greek Salad
• Couscous Salad

Or serve with a light vegetable side dish such as roasted carrots, green beans with a dollop of melted butter.

Can I serve quiche for breakfast or brunch?

No. Quiche Lorraine is too heavy to be a breakfast or brunch meal and it kind of sounds wrong from a french perspective.

But it's related to the frittata, so you are free to do what your heart aches for.

Dear Reader, how did you get to know about the french quiche lorraine?

Please feel free to share with us your thoughts or questions further below in the comment section.