Right, we’re branching out into wider worldwide food history now. We’ve spent the last few years covering British stuff and, yeah, we’re no patriots, dammit!

Got any foods from your area you’d like us to cover? Give us a shout! We’ll do our best to get to it pronto.

But we’re starting off the shift to worldwide foods with… quiche! Ta da!

We do love this stuff. It’s one of those dishes that’s popular all around the world and you’ll find it in most supermarkets and restaurants.

What’s Quiche?

Quiche is a savoury egg custard tart baked with a flaky pastry.

The pastry crust is filled with savoury custard and bits of cheese, meat, vegetables, and seafood. A famous version is quiche Lorraine, which features bacon or ham and dates back to the 16th century.

Back in the present day, you can eat quiche hot or cold! Or a mixture of both, if you’re totally crazy—lukewarm quiche! For nutters only.

Its versatility is assured thanks to its ability to be served as an entrée, breakfast, lunch, snack, or a main meal.

Plus, you can add loads of toppings to it! Here is but a smattering of the variety of quiche you can scoff into your face:

• Roasted tomato, basic, and parmesan
• Caramelised onion with cheddar and beacon
• French onion with cheesy thyme pastry
• Vegan spinach and cherry tomato
• Asparagus, feta, and dill
• Courgette and double cheese

You get the idea. Quiche is a versatile beast and one very common across the world, also in England where it will constantly appear at wedding spreads.

We kind of view it as the French version of England’s Shephard’s Pie (cottage pie).

It just has a ubiquitous quality like that. But we often forget just how nice the recipe is, eh?

Quiche: A Personal Tale

Quiche has a long history in our lives. And we specifically remember the first time we came across the stuff.

We had a best mate from primary school called Craig. We were over at his house where his birthday party was going on, probably around 1991.

This is the same memory making friendship that installed sour cream and chive Pringles permanently into our brains (see Pandemonium! on the PlayStation for further reminiscing). That was a bit later, around 1996, so let’s cut back a bit to when we were total nippers.

And, yes, what was part of the 1991 birthday party spread? Quiche! Oh yes, did we overindulge in the stuff. And we remember that day most fondly.

Not least as we remember a cantankerous older woman there power tripping and ordering the children to behave.

We don’t remember much about her, other than the ego tripping. But this thrilling food-based tale remains an important part of our adolescence.

Angry Quiche Woman from circa 1991, you have bought yourself a place in our memories. Congratulations to you and quiche!

Plus, happy birthday Craig! Hope that was a good party.

What’s the History of Quiche?

Much of what we know about quiche hails from the 1938 encyclopaedia of gastronomy Larousse Gastronomique.

The French author and chef Prosper Montagné (1865-1948) edited the 1,000+ page first edition.

Larousse Gastronomique claims that quiche hails from Lorraine in Northeastern France.

However, there’s also the possibility quiche originated in Germany, before France made it its own. Lorraine used to be the medieval kingdom of Bezirk Lothringen, which the French eventually occupied and renamed.

“Quiche” potentially derives from the German “kuchen”, which is a similar type of recipe.

The first mentioned of quiche dates back the 16th century, which muddles the exact origins of the dish.

Quiche Lorraine was one of the first variants from then—the cooking process involved baking a bread-dough casing that you’d expect with a pizza these days. Ingredients included

But over time the dish became characterised by its use of pastry, kind of like a pie. But not quite.

And according to various reports we researched, the dish stayed hidden away from most of France (and the wider world) until the 20th century.

After WWII it became popular in England. Then it started taking off in the USA, USA, USA! in the 1950s.

There it was considered a gourmet food and somewhat effeminate. Because burgers are for men and quiche is for girls! 

That was decades back, though, and now it’s safe for one and all to eat quiche without any sort of judgement.

Phew! Just in the nick of time for Craig’s birthday party in 1991, eh?

How to Make Quiche

Hot damn, it’s the sexiest man alive! Jamie Oliver is here to teach YOU how to bake a nice tasty quiche.

It’s getting in hot in here, for sure. That may be Oliver’s presence… or how summer is almost here and it’s humid outside.

Anyway, you can’t just bake it the French tart out of thin air! You’ll need some foodstuffs to help you alone. You there! Here are the ingredients you’ll need, by Jove!

Pastry ingredients

325g wholemeal flour
2 tsp mustard powder
90ml olive oil

Filling ingredients

400 grams of tofu
3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes
¼ tablespoon of ground turmeric
¼ tablespoon of ground white pepper
½ tablespoon of onion granules
2 tablespoons of cornflour
125ml oat or soy milk
Basil
2 tablespoons of olive oil
100 grams of baby leaf spinach
225g cherry tomatoes
2 thyme sprigs

Of course, your filling ingredients will depend on what sort of quiche you’re making. For the above, that list is the vegan spinach and cherry tomato variety.

But if you want to lug a dead animal on there to slake your hunger, that’s your prerogative. Or whatever that word means.

Anyway, quiche is great. We love it. So does Jamie Oliver! We’re now off to send love letters to his social media channels.