[Sca-cooks] National Cheesecake Day

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

It may help to know the linguistic history  here.

The original word was "flado", meaning a flat cake (flado is  cognate with 
"flat"). In the early Middle Ages, it was probably a sweet  flatcake. Its 
inflected form in Latin was "fladone", which became "flaon" and  then "flan". 
(Even today, one meaning of "flan" is a flat metallic surface used  in 
minting.)

Originally, then, the defining characteristic of a flan was  not its 
filling; it probably didn't have one. It is that it was flat. 

At  some point cream or cheese started to be put on it. This was probably 
like a  pizza. And in fact a recipe from just before or after the Crusades 
resembles a  pizza; that is, it has slightly raised sides and contains a 
cheese  filling.

With time, it seems, the side got higher and the defining trait  of what 
was now a flan was its filling. Just as what had been "pasties" in  French 
(pâtés) became known for what had filled these (chopped flavored meat),  so in 
some places a flan is what once filled what had been a  flatcake.

Jim Chevallier
www.chezjim.com

Sources on early  medieval French  food
http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2014/07/sources-on-early-medieval-french-food.h
tml







In  a message dated 7/31/2014 11:10:51 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
lordhunt at gmail.com writes:
My last endeavour with one of those recipes was  “flaones.” ...  I find 
the “enchir” recipe more like cheesecake and the  other one was a fight to 
make it solidify thus making it to be like a Spanish  “flan” pudding.