The Flan Story

Last night one of my father’s friends arranged a dinner in a trendy Cuban restaurant called Havana 1920 in downtown San Diego and something happened… a huge craving was lifted up that prompted me to look at the desserts menu online hours before going to the restaurant because of one possibility, do they have flan? I found “Abuela’s Flan” on that menu and even before getting there I had my ratatouille moment.

Ask any Hispanic person (either a Puerto Rican, Mexican, Cuban, etc.) about flan and they may be able to tell you a tearful nostalgic childhood story like it belonged to the Disney's Coco movie. For example, my first memory of flan is from the time my abuela spent hours making the flan for the Christmas parties in which dessert even counted as a gift to all the attendees. The trip to the supermarket, seeing the sugar slowly melting in the pan, and making the custard mixture is a better sensory experience than any blockbuster movie on a 4DX movie room, throwing shade at last year’s Justice League. And after hours of preparation, the flan came to the table and everyone complimented the flan, even the family members that had diabetes, it was their “cheat on the moment” they may have only had. After thinking about that memory, I asked myself how the flan came to be such an iconic Hispanic dessert… so I searched and I present you “The Flan Story.”

The story of the famous Hispanic dessert called flan is actually a long and a storied one: in Ancient Rome, Romans and Greeks were trying new ways to eat eggs due to the first time in history having a huge surplus of eggs. They came up with a magical alchemy of eggs, cream, and sugar to create a custardy dessert. So after the fall of the Roman Empire, which was OK because there were even documented “eel flan” dishes at that time, the idea of a magical alchemy of creme, eggs, and sugar remained the same and survived the dark emo medieval times, with the word flan coming from the Latin flado, then later French flaon. But it was not until this treat arrives in Spain where they caramelized the sugar to form “tocino del cielo” which gave the flan its renowned shape. At the same time, the Moors at that area combined their rich resources like nuts and citrus fruits into this recipe which is where the flavored flans come, which a guava flan is like dessert gold in my opinion. But it was not until Hernan Cortes came to Mexico that the flan (genocide, diseases, and Catholicism but that is not the point here) came to the New World. So how it became such a staple in Latin American and Caribbean cuisine.

The answer is in the recipe, you can only do a flan with just three ingredients making the dish simple for the poor families to make with little ingredients that they had to buy. So I asked my abuela how she made the flan of my childhood. Not disclosing any family secrets she told me it is as simple as:

“For every person that will be invited to come to the party, use one egg and a tablespoon of sugar… the classic one-and-one. You have to break the eggs, having in mind that the egg yolks are what is going to give the flan its softness and the egg whites its firmness. Then measure the eggs in cups, add the same amount in cups of Goya Condensed Milk. Remember to put a tablespoon of sugar for every egg used and mix it. Meanwhile, put sugar in a skillet and caramelize it. Finally, put the mixture in a pan coated with the caramelized sugar and put it in the oven. Remember to have it with a cafecito (which is basically an espresso shot with cream and sugar) and ta-dah there you have it.”

— My Abuela

The simplicity of the recipe is amazing but there is something that still bothers me, the argument whether the creme brulee is better than flan. Which yes, they are both custardy desserts, but the flan is the less snobby douche cousin. The differences between the two are the ratio of the ingredients and presentation. First, sugar affects the texture, it makes it less firm so in other words, the creme brulee has more sugar in its mixture which makes it softer. Also, the eggs provide sturdiness, that’s why the more opulent the custardy dessert the chances are that it contains only or more egg yolks than the other. Later, the fat measure in the dairy used is important, due to condensed milk having more fat which gives a better texture and it’s more accessible to less rich families, that is the usual dairy product used for the Hispanic flan. And finally, presentation puts the nail in the coffin for this debate as you may have seen how a person with a flamethrower basically burning the sugar crust of the creme brulee is different from the gooey crust of the sugar top of the flan.

The flan vs. the creme brulee battle will continue...

Besides that debate, it’s just incredible how the flan comes so far. Beginning with what appeared to be a bad joke: an ancient Roman walks into a Greek temple and asks what he can do with so many damn eggs and sugar? Then the greek just said mix it with warm milk. Not the best joke but you get it, three simple, accessible ingredients make one of the best desserts in the world.

That was everything I imagined on my way to Havana 1920 that night, and after their Lechón Asado dish, which was great, the time came to try the "Abuela's Flan"... only to be told by the waiter they already sold the last piece. The irony killed my ratatouille moment but I will try another time.