[Sca-cooks] Re: fladen

[James Prescott]

At 23:13 -0600 2003-11-29, Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Thorvald commented:
>> > Ein Buch von guter spise has several recipes for morella cherries, including
>> > Einen fladen von wisseln (A fladen of morella cherries)
>> >
>> > Just what is a fladen? This recipe seems to be more or less a fruit leather,
>> > but the other recipes for fladen include meat/chicken, cheese and eggs
>> > on a leaf of dough.
>>
>> I reckon it's a crustless flan, also spelled 'vlade' and 'vladen',
>> with any of a variety of fillings.

> Oh? The only "flan" that I've seen has been the Mexican flan. Usually served as a round disk of custard stuff with a small pool of caramel? on top and around the edge. There were probably period ancestors, although any that have been given I've probably filed under pudding. So, is there a difference between a flan and a pudding?


A flan usually has a lower crust, and is generally fairly flat.
The word 'flan' comes from a word meaning a flat cake.  There
are a variety of dishes called 'flan', both sweet and savoury.

Larousse Gastronomique (1961) gives about 18 recipes, mostly 
savoury (it lists most of the sweet recipes suitable for flans
under tart), and says "In essence, a flan is no more than a 
kind of open tart [that is, without an upper crust] ...."

A quiche could be a flan or a tart depending on how you felt.

The OED equates English 'flawn', French 'flan', Dutch 'vlade',
and modern German 'fladen'.

The four 'vladen' recipes in Cocboeck (1593) are all baked in 
presumably shallow dishes or cups, *without* the lower crust, 
and tend towards the sweet end of the spectrum, with a firm
consistency, and with ingredients:

1) milk, eggs; small amounts of flour, butter, salt, sugar

2) mashed cooked apples, bread crumbs, egg yolks; small amounts 
of butter, wine, ginger, sugar, cinnamon

3) mashed cooked quinces, cream, eggs; small amounts of flour, 
sugar, herbs

4) pounded almonds and rice cooked in milk, eggs, cream;
small amounts of rose water, sugar, butter, sprinkled
decoration


Thorvald