Where Did Flan Come From?
It's a story with twists and turns and starts with chickens. The Romans were the first to domesticate chickens. Finding themselves with a big egg surplus, the Romans stole, make that borrowed, from the Greeks to develop new egg-based recipes. Early versions of flan were savory not sweet. Somewhere along the way, someone tossed honey in the pot instead of fish flakes and sweet flan was born. Romans conquered basically all of Europe, and their customs, beliefs, and recipes went with them. Sweet flan enchanted the newly vanquished lands and when the Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, flan survived. Of all the peoples introduced to this dessert, the Spanish loved the stuff and were the first to add burnt sugar caramel. Like the Romans before them, the Spaniards brought flan to new ...