Quiche ( ) is a French

tart A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes wit ...

consisting of pastry crust filled with savoury custard and pieces of cheese, meat, seafood or

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

s. A well-known variant is

quiche Lorraine Quiche Lorraine is a French tart with a filling made of cream, eggs, and bacon or ham, in an open pastry case. It was little known outside the French region of Lorraine until the mid-20th century. As its popularity spread, nationally and intern ...

, which includes

lardons A lardon, also spelled lardoon, is a small strip or cube of fatty bacon, or pork fat (usually subcutaneous fat), used in a wide variety of cuisines to flavor savory food and salads. In French cuisine, lardons are also used for larding, by thre ...

or bacon. Quiche may be served hot, warm or cold.

Overview

Etymology

The word is first attested in French in 1805, and in 1605 in Lorrain patois. The first English usage—"quiche Lorraine"—was recorded in 1925. The further etymology is uncertain but it may be related to the German ' meaning "cake" or "tart".

History

Quiche is considered a French dish; however, using eggs and cream in pastry was practised in

English cuisine English cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with England. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but also shares much with wider British cuisine, partly through the importation of ingredients and ideas ...

at least as early as the 14th century and

Italian cuisine Italian cuisine (, ) is a Mediterranean cuisine David 1988, Introduction, pp.101–103 consisting of the ingredients, recipes and cooking techniques developed across the Italian Peninsula and later spread around the world together with wave ...

at least as early as the 13th century. Recipes for eggs and cream baked in pastry containing meat, fish and fruit are referred to ''Crustardes of flesh'' and ''Crustade'' in the 14th-century ''

The Forme of Cury ''The Forme of Cury'' (''The Method of Cooking'', from Middle French : 'to cook') is an extensive 14th-century collection of medieval English recipes. Although the original manuscript is lost, the text appears in nine manuscripts, the most fa ...

'' and in 15th-century cookbooks, such as the Italian '.

Varieties

A quiche usually has a pastry crust and a filling of eggs and milk and/or cream. It may be made with vegetables, meat or seafood, and be served hot, warm or cold. Types of quiche include: In her '' French Country Cooking'' (1951),

Elizabeth David Elizabeth David CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and bo ...

gives a recipe for a ''quiche aux pommes de terre'', in which the case is made not from shortcrust but from mashed potato, flour and butter; the filling is cream, Gruyère and garlic.David (1999), p. 285

Overview

Etymology

History

Varieties

Gallery

Notes

References

Sources

See also

External links