In Defense of Quiche, Because a Savory Custard Done Right Is Magical (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between custard and quiche? ›

Quiche is, as stated above, a custard pie. Custard, of course, is a combination of milk or cream and eggs that is cooked to a desired thickened consistency, and the cream is of utmost importance here. Without cream, you just get … eggs.

A tart can be either sweet or savory and may or may not have a custard-based filling. Tarts can have pie-like fruit fillings instead. A quiche is always savory and always has a custard-based (egg and milk) filling. Quiches can also have other savory ingredients added to them, like ham, cheese, etc.

Quiche (/ˈkiːʃ/ KEESH) is a French tart consisting of a pastry crust filled with savoury custard and pieces of cheese, meat, seafood or vegetables.

Originally, it was a savory pie consisting of an egg and cream custard with bacon or salmon. The French word for cake is "quiche," which might have influenced the name. The dish as we know it today originated in the Lorraine region of France in the 1800s. It consists of eggs and cream or milk in a pastry crust.

What's the Difference Between Flan and Quiche? Flan, in the British sense, is an open-faced pie or tart with a savory or sweet filling. This can include egg-based pies also called quiche. Quiche is a French dish that is a savory egg tart and can include other fillings like ham, cheese, and vegetables.

3 Varieties of Custard

There are three main varieties of custard: baked custard, stirred custard, and steamed custard. The first two are both popular in Western cuisine. Baked custard is typically firmer and made with whole eggs, while stirred custards can be much runnier and often only contain the yolks.

You could have it with a mixed green salad, unless you prefer to add steamed broccoli or leeks to the quiche batter. Either way, in Alsace, it was well complemented by a glass of the local white or a light red wine. Quiche became quite a rage in the United States a decade or two ago.

Quiche Lorraine is one of the many savory French pies. Quiches can be made with many different fillings, but today's recipe is a classic. The French typically eat quiches for lunch and dinner or as appetizers, but I've found that Americans like to eat quiches for breakfast and brunch.

That's only natural, since it was in France that quiche first became popular, and it's been a staple of French cuisine for centuries. Surprisingly, though, the quiche actually originated in Germany. It dates back all the way to medieval times, when it became a local cuisine in the kingdom of Lothringen.

A frittata is partially cooked in a skillet on the cooktop then finished in the oven. It also has a lower egg to dairy ratio making it closer to an open faced omelet than a pie. Quiche has a creamier, custard-like texture due to more dairy and is cooked entirely in the oven.

What does the French word quiche mean in English? ›

Quiche is a French word that first appeared in English in the mid-20th century and became very popular around 1970. It comes from the German Kuchen, or "cake." Definitions of quiche. noun. a tart filled with rich unsweetened custard; often contains other ingredients (as cheese or ham or seafood or vegetables)

Adjective. quiche (comparative more quiche, superlative most quiche) (slang) Extremely appealing to look at; sexually alluring. I'm not even bragging, but me and my friends are pretty much quiche.

The egg tart (traditional Chinese: 蛋撻; simplified Chinese: 蛋挞; Cantonese Yale: daahn tāat; pinyin: dàntǎ) is a kind of custard tart found in Chinese cuisine, derived from the English custard tart and Portuguese pastel de nata. The dish consists of an outer pastry crust filled with egg custard.

While most custard and pudding recipes both typically call for eggs, the main difference is that pudding uses a starch for thickening, whereas custard's thickening agent is the egg itself (or egg yolk, in most instances). Custard's texture also tends to be firmer than pudding.

WHAT IS A FRITTATA? Frittatas are Italian in origin and can be described as a cross between an omelet and a crustless quiche. Frittatas take less time to make than quiche or strata.

Origin: Frittata is an Italian dish whereas quiche is a French dish. Crust: A quiche has crust while a frittata does not. Sometimes, quiche is baked without crust. Base Ingredients: While both frittatas and quiches are made with eggs, quiche is made with an egg custard, which also includes cream or milk.