thoroughly; cooling firms protein gels.
Food Words: Custard, Cream, Flan
The nomenclature for egg-milk mixtures
has always been loose. The English
“custard” began as “croustade” in medieval
times, and meant dishes served in a crust
— thus, for egg-milk combinations,
usually baked and unstirred, and so solid.
Early English creams could be either liquid
or solid, as could the French crèmes. Those
congealed past the point of creaminess
became known as crèmes prises, or “set
creams.”
Flan, a French word, comes from the
late Latin for “flat cake.”
Custards that contain fruits or vegetables
can turn out very uneven, with pockets of
fluid and curdling. (Usually this is
undesirable, though the Japanese expect
chawan-mushi to weep and treat it as a
combination of custard and soup.) The