Historia Del Flan

History of Flan
Flan is a recipe as old as ancient Rome. During Roman times chickens were first kept for laying eggs. The Romans, with an abundance of eggs, developed new recipes, one of whichbecame a custardly concoction known as flan. It was originally savory (not sweet, but aromatic and pleasing to the palate). The Romans invented many dishes that we might find interesting, such as eel flan.They also had a very nice sweet flan that was flavored with honey.
The Roman Empire was destined to fall and on its ruins arose Medieval society. Yet the transition between ancient times and Midevalthough often violent - was somewhat contiguous. Flan survived barbarian invasions (and perhaps pacified a barbarian or two). It surfaced as a generally sweet dish but still based on the old idea ofmixing creme and eggs to form a custard. Our word for flan actually is derived from the Latin, "flado" (meaning flat cake), which became "flaon" in Old French.
Flan found two different outlets. InSpain it became a sweet custard generally made with caramelized sugar. The mixture of milk, eggs and sugar was cooked slowly in crocks and relished by many. Besides the Roman influence, the Moorsintroduced citrus and almonds which are commonly found to flavor flan. Once Christopher Columbus found America the rush to the riches of the region brought the richness of flan with it. Nearly all of Centraland South America loves flan in its various custardly forms. It has become especially associated with Mexico where flan is exquisitely produced in the kitchens of rich and poor alike.
England, withits love for pastry crusts, went its own way and developed a different kind of flan. This one makes use of a pastry shell with an open top filled with custard and often mixed with nuts or fruit. Thisis the flan that is often mentioned in the literature of England and gets high marks in Brian Jacques's Redwall series. The characters there make and "scoff" several flans in every volume of...