Cream Caramel,
flanCream Caramel, flan, or caramel custard is a rich custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top, as opposed to crème brûlée, which is custard with a hard caramel top....
, or
caramel custard is a rich
custardCustard is a range of preparations based on milk and eggs. Most commonly, custard refers to a dessert or dessert sauce, but custard bases are also used for quiches and other savoury foods. As a dessert, it is made from a combination of milk or cream, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla...
dessertDessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food but sometimes of a strongly-flavored one, such as some cheeses...
with a layer of soft
caramelCaramel is a beige to dark brown confection made by heating sugar. It is used as a flavor in puddings and desserts, a filling in candies and chocolates, and a topping for ice cream and custards....
on top, as opposed to
crème brûléeCrème brûlée , burnt cream, crema catalana, or Trinity cream is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hard caramel, created by caramelizing sugar under a broiler, with a propane or butane torch or other intense heat source, or by pouring sugar...
, which is custard with a hard caramel top.
The dish has spread across
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and the world. Both 'crème caramel' and 'flan' (from Old German
flado 'cake') are
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
names, but have come to have different meanings in different regions. In Spanish-speaking countries and in
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
,
flan refers to cream; this was originally a
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
usage, but the dish is now best-known in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in a Latin American context and also in the Philippines, where it is known more as
leche flan.
Cream Caramel,
flanCream Caramel, flan, or caramel custard is a rich custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top, as opposed to crème brûlée, which is custard with a hard caramel top....
, or
caramel custard is a rich
custardCustard is a range of preparations based on milk and eggs. Most commonly, custard refers to a dessert or dessert sauce, but custard bases are also used for quiches and other savoury foods. As a dessert, it is made from a combination of milk or cream, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla...
dessertDessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food but sometimes of a strongly-flavored one, such as some cheeses...
with a layer of soft
caramelCaramel is a beige to dark brown confection made by heating sugar. It is used as a flavor in puddings and desserts, a filling in candies and chocolates, and a topping for ice cream and custards....
on top, as opposed to
crème brûléeCrème brûlée , burnt cream, crema catalana, or Trinity cream is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hard caramel, created by caramelizing sugar under a broiler, with a propane or butane torch or other intense heat source, or by pouring sugar...
, which is custard with a hard caramel top.
The dish has spread across
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and the world. Both 'crème caramel' and 'flan' (from Old German
flado 'cake') are
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
names, but have come to have different meanings in different regions. In Spanish-speaking countries and in
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
,
flan refers to cream; this was originally a
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
usage, but the dish is now best-known in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in a Latin American context and also in the Philippines, where it is known more as
leche flan. Elsewhere, including in France, 'flan' usually means a
custard tartCustard tarts have long been a favourite pastry in the British Isles, and are also widely enjoyed in Australia and New Zealand. They are often called egg custard tarts or simply egg custards to distinguish the egg-based filling from the commonly-served cornflour-based custards.Custard tarts consist...
, often with a fruit topping. In Europe and many Commonwealth countries, the dish is generally known as cream caramel.
Food historian
Alan DavidsonAlan Eaton Davidson was a British diplomat and historian best known for his writing and editing on food and gastronomy. He was the author of the 900-page, encyclopedic Oxford Companion to Food ....
remarks,
Preparation
Crème caramel is a variant of plain custard (crème) where some sugar syrup, cooked to caramel stage, is poured into the mold before adding the custard base. An imitation of crème caramel may be prepared from "instant flan powder", which is thickened with
agarAgar or agar agar is a gelatinous substance derived from seaweed. Historically and in a modern context, it is chiefly used as an ingredient in desserts throughout Japan, but in the past century has found extensive use as a solid substrate to contain culture medium for microbiological work...
or
carrageenanCarrageenans or carrageenins are a family of linear sulphated polysaccharides extracted from red seaweeds.The origin of the name is unclear and references to a county in Ireland are common but false. It is most likely to derive from an Irish language phrase for "little rock"...
rather than eggs. In some
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n countries, the true custard version is known as "milk flan" (flan de leche) or even "milk cheese", and the substitute version is known as just "flan".
Regional varieties
Packaged crème caramel is ubiquitous in Japanese convenience stores under the name , or "custard pudding". Often, an entire shelf in a
LawsonLawson is a convenience store franchise chain in Japan. The store originated in the U.S. State of Ohio, but today exists as a Japanese company and is the second largest convenience store chain in the country.-Origins in Ohio:...
or
7-Eleven7-Eleven is an international chain of convenience stores and the largest chain store with more than 32,000 outlets operating around the world, surpassing the previous record-holder McDonald’s Corporation by approximately 1,000 retail stores...
is dedicated to over a dozen brands and varieties. In
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
,
UruguayUruguay , is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.1 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area. An estimated 88–94% of the population are of mostly European and/or mixed descent.Uruguay's only land border is...
and some neighbouring countries, crème caramel is usually eaten with
dulce de lecheDulce de leche in Spanish or doce de leite in Portuguese , is a milk-based sauce. Found as both a syrup and a caramel candy, it is prepared by slowly heating sweetened milk to create a product that is vaguely similar in taste to caramel...
. Crème caramel is also common in
VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
, where it is known as
kem flan. In the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
, it is served as
Leche Flan, a heavier version of the Spanish flan, and is a staple in all celebratory feasts.
Etymology
The Modern English word 'flan' and the earlier 'flawn' come from French
flan, from
Old FrenchOld French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 900 to 1300...
flaon, in turn from
Medieval LatinMedieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...
fladonem, derived from the
Old High GermanThe term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
flado, a sort of flat cake, probably from an
Indo-EuropeanThe Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, Iran, and northern India, and historically also predominant in Anatolia and Central Asia...
root for 'flat' or 'broad'.
See also
- Crème brûlée
Crème brûlée , burnt cream, crema catalana, or Trinity cream is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hard caramel, created by caramelizing sugar under a broiler, with a propane or butane torch or other intense heat source, or by pouring sugar...
, a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hard caramel.
- In Spain, the Catalonian version of the crème brûlée is called crema catalana. It is also called Crema de Sant Josep, or St. Joseph’s cream, traditionally prepared on March 19, St. Joseph’s Day, the Spanish equivalent of Father’s Day in the USA.
Sources
- Alan Davidson
Alan Eaton Davidson was a British diplomat and historian best known for his writing and editing on food and gastronomy. He was the author of the 900-page, encyclopedic Oxford Companion to Food ....
, The Oxford Companion to Food, 1999. ISBN 0-19-211579-0.