Quiche Lorraine

Updated Aug. 22, 2024

Quiche Lorraine
Craig Lee for The New York Times
Total Time
1 hour 10 minutes
Rating
5(4,025)
Notes
Read community notes

The first quiche to come to the attention of the American public was the quiche Lorraine in the 1950s. Craig Claiborne, who started as food editor of The Times in 1957, created this classic recipe with bacon, onion and cheese to fill a pie dish. If you use a tart pan, expect to have extra custard.

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Ingredients

Yield:6 to 10 servings
  • Pastry for a one-crust 9-inch pie (see pastry recipe)
  • 4strips bacon
  • 1onion, thinly sliced
  • 1cup Gruyère or Swiss cheese, cubed
  • ¼cup grated Parmesan
  • 4eggs, lightly beaten
  • 2cups heavy cream or 1 cup each milk and cream
  • ¼teaspoon nutmeg
  • ½teaspoon salt
  • ¼teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • Tabasco sauce to taste
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

  2. Step 2

    Line a nine-inch pie plate with the pastry. By all means build a rim with the pastry and flute it. This is essential for the amount of custard indicated in this recipe.

    Image of pie dough being fit into a pie plate before baking.
  3. Step 3

    Cover the bottom of the pastry with a round of parchment paper and add enough dried beans or peas to partly fill the shell. Bake 10 minutes.

    Image of a pie crust weighed down with parchment and dried beans, prepared to be par baked.
  4. Step 4

    Reduce the oven heat to 375 degrees. Remove and discard the beans and parchment paper and set the pastry-lined pie plate aside.

    Image of a par-baked crust for making a quiche Lorraine.
  5. Step 5

    Cook the bacon until crisp and remove it from skillet. Pour off all but one tablespoon of the fat remaining in the skillet. Cook the onion in the remaining fat until the onion is transparent.

  6. Step 6

    Combine the eggs, cream, nutmeg, salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce. Crumble the bacon and sprinkle the bacon, onion and cheeses over the inside of the partly baked pastry.

    Image of bacon, onions and cheese being place in a par-baked pie crust for making a quiche Lorraine.
  7. Step 7

    Strain the cream mixture over the onion-cheese mixture. Slide the pie onto a baking sheet.

  8. Step 8

    Bake the pie until a knife inserted one inch from the pastry edge comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Remove to a wire rack. Let stand 5 or 10 minutes before serving.

    Image of baked quiche with a slice taken out and placed on a plate for making a Quiche Lorraine.

Ratings

5 out of 5
4,025 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

Something that really helps prevent soggy bottoms: after taking any pie crust out of the oven once you blind bake it, remove the beans or pie weights & parchment, paint the bottom with egg white & place back in the oven for a good five minutes or so. The EW will crisp up & create a nice barrier to prevent a soggy bottom! Works every time.

FYI I'm a real greenhorn but my experience on my second try w this:
1. Used a prefab 9" frozen crust.
2. Cut up a large onion used about 3/4 of it.
3. Cut gruyere into very small cubes.
4. Used 3 eggs and 1 3/4 cup heavy cream
5. Put extra leftover cooked onions on top of custard before baking.
6. Baked for 35 min at 400 (elec oven)
I'd love to post a pic. Wish I could.
NYT Cooking is helping me learn cooking at age 71. THANKS.

Flavors were great, but I had a few baking issues. I'd make it again with these adjustments:

ISSUE: The bottom of the finished quiche was VERY soggy. A good bit of liquid actually seeped through the crust onto the baking sheet.
FIX: After the 10 minute par-bake, remove weights and parchment. Continue to par-bake for 6-8 more minutes. Before adding ingredients and egg mix, protect the edge of the crust with foil strips.

ISSUE: Under baked.
FIX: Cook for 28-30 minutes.

Delicious! I've used bacon many times but, now prefer to dice a ham steak and add to transparent onions to heat through before adding to pie dish. I also grate the swiss cheese instead of cubes so it melts better. Cooking time was about 50 minutes at 375. I always refer to this recipe when making a quiche.

I made this today. To fit a grocery store pie crust (9inch deep dish) I made the following changes: used three eggs and reduced the cream to 1.5 cups. Every thing else was the same. It was PERFECT. No leftover custard with those amounts.

Quiche generally take a long time at a low temperature, so the eggs do not cook too quickly and ruin the texture. I set my timer for 45 minutes then I check generally it. Often it take a awhile longer, try separating the eggs, creaming the yolk, and then beating the whites until you have stiff peaks. That will give it more body and a more fluffy final product.

A bit atypical a quiche lorraine (we use smoked lardons and we don't use parmesan in France, eg) but really good recipe nonetheless. I had to let it in the oven for a longer time (45')

I've made this several times and it's always satisfying! I double the bacon, reduce the cream to 1 1/2 cups and use a deep pie plate. I also add a dash of cayenne in place of the tabasco. Great with spinach and mushrooms, too!

So very good - the flavors of France. I followed the recipe closely, just baked the shell st 375 for 10 minutes with the beans and another 5 without them. Used a good quality, thick-cut bacon and then layered onion, then bacon, then cheese, then onion, bacon and cheese again before pouring the egg mixture in, this kept everything well-distributed. Everything turned out delicious, truly the definitive quiche recipe.

Absolutely delicious. Didn't use the parchment paper, but did use pie weights. Needed about 12 minutes longer in the oven, but had a wonderful texture. Small cubes of gruyere worked well (less than 1 cm).

Remember to chill pastry after shaping, before blind baking.

But what you’re making is nowhere near Quiche Lorraine. Vanilla? Allspice? Yuck.

While this is a quiche/tart of some sort an likely fine, it is not a quiche loraine with those substitutions. Some classic dishes are what the are.

Great recipe! Substituted half and half for heavy cream and pinch of cayenne for Tabasco. Also forgot to add parmesan. Turned out fantastic.
Required 50 min baking time @ 375.

After blind baking brush bottom of tart with egg white... put back in oven and bake another 5 minutes This will keep the crust from getting soggy.

I wish that people would stop presenting recipes with other ingredients than those that belong in the original recipe. Craig Claiborne should have known better. Quiche Lorraine never has cheese in it. Call it a cheese/bacon quiche but not Lorraine. This only perpetuates incorrect expectations of a certain dish.

I add 1/2 tsp mustard powder in the liquid mix

This is quite simply the best thing I have ever baked. The little melted globs of Gruyère are just heaven. Have made several times and always a struggle for my husband and I to not devour the entire quiche in one sitting.

Gruyere cheese is still not easily had in Joplin, Missouri.

I looked online for you. Walmart has it, a Google search says! And Macadoodles does too(think is beer and wine and cheese shop). Hope you can find it. Recipe is very yummy!

I dont see the oven temperature to bake the quiche and how long to bake it for?

I always use this recipe but grate the cheese vs cube it.

This was a HUGE success! I served my company brunch, and it came out perfectly!

Should have read the notes that recommended prebaking the crust longer. It was indeed a bit soggy. Also, I recommend adding a little salt to the dough if using unsalted butter.

Lovely tart, but 20 minutes for the pastry seems too much in retrospect. Crust came out borderline burned. A second attempt cutting the time of the pre-bake in half made for a perfect result.

Too much butter in the crust recipe! It didn't pre-bake, it MELTED!

Just milk works!! I made this with no cream and only whole milk. It makes a delicious quiche.

It's in the oven and I have questions! First: why do you strain it? I did, and so much black pepper and nutmeg seemed to get left behind. I actually poured off the last bit of egg mixture that didn't want to go through, but there was still a lot of spice left back. Is that what you want? I did 8 oz of gruyere and about 2 oz of pecorino (didn't have parmesan). Worried it'd be too much since I was going by weight instead of volume, but everything fit fine in a ceramic pie dish.

Don’t be like me. Don’t forget to drain the oil from the skillet after cooking the bacon.

I made this today for Mother's Day Brunch. So glad I read the notes. No soggy crust by using tips from other cooks! The quiche was delicious and I did add spinach once the onions were almost finished cooking.

Excellent! Only diff in my recipe is that I used ham cubes - not too much.

Fragrant not Flagrant. Nutmeg, especially freshly grated.

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