So I’m sitting here eating some lovely flan, and I started to wonder – what, exactly, is the difference between flan and creme caramel?
I decided to google it, and my first hit was from Yahoo answers. The gist of it: Flan has a flaky pastry crust and is filled with either a fruit or savory filling. Creme caramel is a baked custard.
Hmm… I’ve had flan a few times, and it’s always lacked crust, fruit, and meat. So… what, exactly, is the difference between flan and creme caramel?
I’ve never had creme caramel so I don’t know the difference but I can back you up on the flan description. My experience agrees with yours.
I have yet to see Yahoo answers get anything terribly right, and yet they’re always high in search results.
That said, according to Wikipedia (I’d never heard this either), a British flan does in fact involve a shortcrust base and a savory or sweet filling. IME, in the US, flan always refers to the Spanish version, which is a variation on a creme caramel, and involves no crust or savory stuff.
How is flan formed? How make crust flaky?
never mind
I agree. There is a great restaurant that features the cuisine of southern? Spain. When the waiter goes over the desert options I always laugh. He will list all these scrumptious options that he has totally memorized. “Tonight we feature a plate of fresh berries topped with creme frech and drizzled with a sauce made from polar bear kidney” types of descriptions. The waiter recites these fantastic deserts for what seems like 10 minutes. He finishes with, “and flan”.
Ah, so there is British flan and Spanish flan. Very different, indeed. Kind of like the difference between New England clam chowder and, say, pizza.
Yahoo Answers is a community-based answering system, with a remarkably idiotic community. The SDMB is to Yahoo Answers as The Complete Works Of Shakespeare is to YouTube comments.
roflmao:D:D:D:D:D:D
Flann is formed deep instain oven.
This is what I think of when I hear Flan and this is what I think of when I hear Creme_Caramel .
In short, Flan is served hot, Creme Caramel cold. This requires slight differences in the texture and ingredients. If you make Flan and serve it cold, the caramel will be a razor sharp shell on top of the custard. If you make creme caramel and serve it hot, it will be caramel custard soup.
ETA: Bravo, RevTim!
Apparently, Creme_Caramel is not yet a top-level domain.
Still, I live in hopes.
I am truley hungry for your lots.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA+++++++++++++++++++++ WOULD READ AGAIN thx!!!
I don’t think I’ve ever had hot flan. I may have had one or two served slightly warm, but never hot. The topping (or actually bottom before its inverted) of flan remains a caramel liquid even after chilling. I, too, am curious at what the difference between flan and creme caramel are. As far as I can tell, they’re local names for basically the same foodstuff.
IIRC, someone on this board had an another nicely quotable line summing that up: “For yahoo answers, see Yahoo Answers”.
Alton Brown would agree with you: “…creme caramel - a.k.a. flan…”, and later in the same episode “Now, I guess the French thought that flan sounded too much like phlegm because they changed it to crème caramel. But, either way it’s a deliciously simple egg custard baked on top of a pool of something that when inverted turns out to be a sauce on top.”
A fruit flan is a flat-ish fruit tart. The pan is fluted and low, there is usually a custard base, and then fresh sliced fruit is arranged on top with a fruit glaze. A baked flan, Spanish-style, is a creme caramel.
Now I’m hungry.
They need to do way instain chef> who ruin thier flan. becuse these flan cant frigth back it was on the news this mroing a mother in ar who had ruin her three flan . they are taking the three flan back to new york too lady to rest my pary are with the chef who lost his flan ; i am truley sorry for your lots
