Flan: The History of the World’s Favorite Latin Dessert

Flan has proven to be one of the most popular Latin desserts, from Western Europe to the Americas to the Philippines and beyond. This custard dish is beloved and has been absorbed into the national cuisines of many countries.

However, where did this creamy and eggy dish originate? Well, the safe answer would be Europe, though flan traces its roots from a truly ancient origin, and that is ancient Rome itself. In other words, it really is a truly Latin dish.

According to We Are Cocina, Romans were the first to domesticate chickens for egg-harvesting purposes, and this meant that they also began developing new ways of preparing them. This included mixing eggs with cream to make a flat Latin cake known as "flado," which would evolve into the modern custard flan we have today.

Initially, "flado" was not sweet. It evolved into dessert when the Spaniards had a go at it. As for the modern name, it was taken from Old French, which called the dish "flaon." The word was taken from its Late Latin name, "fladon," which took from the Old High German word "flado." The original word essentially means flat cake.

The Journey of 'Flado' to Becoming Flan

Back when "flado" was invented, it was more of a savory dish rather than a dessert as it originated from an egg surplus during the Roman Empire. The egg and milk or cream mixture has always been there, but in the ancient Roman world, it had a lot of other flavors, including peppered eel.

According to cheesecake.com, there were some sweet ones though, using honey as the sweetener, but flado was essentially a savory dish otherwise.

As the Romans conquered Europe, they spread flado, with the sweeter variant becoming popular in the lands conquered by Rome's vast legions, including the Iberian Peninsula, where Spain and Portugal are. When the Roman Empire finally fell to the Barbarian invasions by Germanic tribes, flan's sweet variant survived.

Flan survived the Frankish conquest of Spain, the Moorish invasion, and the Reconquista. Soon, Spain started its own expansion, finally taking flan to the New World in 1518 when he landed in the Yucatan Peninsula.

The Spaniards then slowly conquered the Americas, taking the dessert to its conquered territories where it also became popular with the locals. They even took it to its Southeast Asian colony, the Philippines, where it remains popular to this day.

Modern Day Flan

These days, flan is no longer flavored with eels as it is truly a global dessert. Invented by Romans, refined and spread by the Spaniards, and adopted by Latin Americans, it has proven very popular in the modern day, especially in Mexico where it is considered the most popular.

These days, flan is mostly a mixture of egg, cream, and sugar, topped with caramel, with the now-iconic caramel topping being added by the Spaniards, according to Soccarat. However, some variants use citrus fruits and almonds as flavorings, and this was thanks to some Moorish influence.

In Mexico, there are various flavors, which range from the classic vanilla flan to chocolate flan and coffee flan. In the Philippines, more exotic variants also exist, including ube or purple yam, as well as pandan leaf.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: How to Make Easy Baked Flan | Flan Recipe | Allrecipes.com