Flan
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| Course | Main course or Dessert or Snack |
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| Serving temperature | Cold |
| Main ingredients | pastry, custard (sweet flans), vegetables (savoury flans) |
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Flan is an open, rimmed, pastry or sponge base, containing a sweet or savoury filling. Examples are the quiche lorraine, custard tart, and the South African melktert. In British English, flan is synonymous with tart.
British savoury flans may have diverged from the Spanish and French custard flans (also known as crème caramel) in the Middle Ages.
The history of flan begins with the ancient Romans. Eggs figured prominently in many Roman recipes. The flan prepared by the ancient Romans was quite different from the food eaten today. It was often served as a savory dish, as in "eel flan", although sweet flans, made with honey and pepper, were also enjoyed. When the Romans conquered Europe, they brought their culinary traditions, including the flan, with them.
In the Middle Ages, both sweet and savory flans (almonds, cinnamon & sugar; cheese, curd, spinach, fish) were very popular in Europe, especially during Lent, when meat was forbidden. According to Platina's De Honesta Voluptate [On Right Pleasure and Good Health], an Italian cookery text published in approximately 1475, custard-type dishes were considered health food. In addition to being nourishing, they were thought to soothe the chest, aid the kidneys and liver, increase fertility, and eliminate certain vaginal urinary problems. Caramel evolved in France.
The English word "flan", and the earlier forms "flaune" and "flawn", come from the Old French flaon (modern French flan), in turn from the early Medieval Latin fladōn-em, derived from the Old High German flado, a sort of flat cake, probably from an Indo-European root for "flat" or "broad".
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Wikipedia