Quiche

Quiche

Quiches
Origin
Place of origin	France
Details
Type	Savoury pie
Main ingredient(s)	Custard, cheese, meat, fish, vegetables

For other uses, see Quiche (disambiguation).

Quiche (/ˈkiːʃ/ KEESH) is a savory, open-faced pastry crust with a filling of savory custard with cheese, meat, fish or vegetables.

Overview

Etymology

A variety of tarts, with a quiche in the bottom left

The word quiche comes from French, which ultimately borrowed the word from Lorraine Franconian Küeche ‘cake’ (cf. German Kuchen). Central Franconian typically unrounded the ü (/y/) and shifted the fricative "ch" (/ç/) to "sh" ([ʃ]), resulting in "kishe", which in standard French spelling gives "quiche."

History

Although known as a classic French dish, the quiche originated in Germany. The word quiche means "cake" which came from the German word Kuchen. Today, quiche is considered as typically French. However, savoury custards in pastry were known in English cuisine at least as early as the fourteenth century. Recipes for custards baked in pastry containing meat, fish and fruit are referred to Crustardes of flessh and Crustade in the fourteenth-century The Forme of Cury and in fifteenth-century cookbooks as well.

Varieties

Quiche has a pastry crust and a filling of eggs and milk or cream which, when baked, become a custard.

Quiche lorraine

Quiche lorraine

Quiche lorraine is a popular variant that was originally an open pie with a filling of custard with smoked bacon or lardons. It was only later that cheese was added to the quiche lorraine. The addition of Gruyère cheese makes a quiche au gruyère or a quiche vosgienne. The 'quiche alsacienne' is similar to the 'quiche lorraine', though onions are added to the recipe. The bottom crust was originally made from bread dough,^{[citation needed]} but that has since evolved into a short-crust or puff pastry crust that is often baked using a springform pan.

The origin of quiche lorraine is in rural Lorraine Region of France and the original quiche lorraine had a rustic style: it was cooked in a cast-iron pan and the pastry edges were not crimped. Today, quiche lorraine is served throughout France and has a modern look. The French version is unlike that served in the United States; the bacon is cubed, no onions are added and the custard base is thicker.

Other varieties

Quiche with spinach

There are many variants of quiche, including a wide variety of ingredients. Variants may be named descriptively, often in French, e.g. quiche au fromage (quiche with cheese) and quiche aux champignons (quiche with mushrooms) or conventionally: florentine (spinach); provençale (tomatoes); and so on.

Cultural references

Bruce Feirstein's 1982 bestseller Real Men Don't Eat Quiche attempts to humorously typecast quiche as a stereotypically feminine food in the context of American culture.^{[citation needed]}

"Quiche Lorraine" is a song from the band The B-52's, which appears on their 1980 album "Wild Planet."

In the comic series "Bone", one of the rat creature characters constantly states that he wants to cook Fone Bone in a quiche.

See also

• French cuisine
• Timballo
• Bacon and egg pie

Further reading

• Ange, E., & Aratow, P. (2005). La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange: the original companion for French home cooking. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.
• Nathan, J. (2010). Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: my search for Jewish cooking in France. New York: Alfred A. Knopf
• "Definition of quiche by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia". Thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved 2012-03-17. 
• "Quiche Origins, History & Recipes". Foodreference.com. Retrieved 2012-03-17. 

External links

• "A Short History of French Cuisine". Preferredconsumer.com. Retrieved 2012-03-17. 
• "French Food Culture and Recipes". France-property-and-information.com. Retrieved 2012-03-17. 
• "Recipe - Classic Quiche Lorraine". Cooks.com. Retrieved 2012-03-17.