''Vla'' () is a Dutch

dairy A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...

product made from fresh

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

. The word ''vla'' was first documented in the 13th century and originally referred to any

custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with Eggs as food, egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in con ...

-like substance covering

cake Cake is a flour confection usually made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elabor ...

s or other baked goods. The word '' vlaai'' is related and has since come to refer to a type of pie. Traditionally ''vla'' is made with eggs,

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

and fresh milk, although some industrial producers use

cornstarch Cornflour, cornstarch, maize starch, or corn starch (American English) is the starch derived from corn (maize) grain. The starch is obtained from the endosperm of the kernel. Corn starch is a common food ingredient, often used to thicken s ...

rather than eggs today. ''Vla'' is available in many different flavors, of which

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). ''Vanilla'' is not Autogamy, autogamous, so pollination ...

is most popular. Other flavors include chocolate, caramel, banana, orange and apple.campina.nl
Vla flavors of market leader Campina. ''Vla'' was originally sold in glass bottles and the consistency made extracting the complete amount difficult, so a special bottle scraper (''flessenschraper'' or ''flessenlikker'') was specifically designed. Despite the fact that ''vla'' is now normally sold in cartons, these scrapers are still common in Dutch family kitchens. Although ''vla'' is originally a typical Dutch product, it was introduced to

Wallonia Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium—along with Flemish Region, Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the c ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

by Campina in 2010 and has been sold in some stores there since then. It is also sold in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

, though it is just called custard and is exclusively sold in tubs instead of cartons.

References

Custard desserts Dairy products Dutch cuisine Dutch words and phrases German cuisine {{Netherlands-cuisine-stub

See also

References