Loseyns - Medieval English Lasagna

England doesn't often come to mind when you think of Lasagna, but in the middle ages, the ancestor of today's cheesy calorie bomb was making the rounds all over Europe. Today I explore the evolution of this wonderful dish.

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LINKS TO INGREDIENTS & EQUIPMENT**

LINKS TO SOURCES**
Liber de Coquina

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MENTIONED LINKS

LOSEYNS
ORIGINAL 1390 RECIPE (From The Forme of Cury) Translated
Take good broth and cook in an earthen pot. Take fine white flour and make thereof paste with water. And make thereof foils thin as paper with a roller, dry it hard and boil it in broth. Take Ruayn Cheese, grated, and lay it in dishes with Powder Douce. And lay thereon the foils large and many as thou might. And above powder and cheese, and so twice or thrice, & serve it forth.

MODERN RECIPE
INGREDIENTS (NOTE: You will have plenty of powder douce left over for future recipes)
- 2 Cups (240g) Bread Flour
- ½ (118ml) Cup Water
- 1.5 liters meat stock
- 8 oz (226g) Semi-soft cheese
- 2 teaspoons ginger
- 1 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon grains of paradise (Or other pepper)

METHOD
1. Assemble your powder douce by grinding all the spices into powder and mixing together. There will be plenty of powder douce left over for future recipes.
2. To make the noodles, mix the flour and water together and knead as you would bread dough, about 15 minutes by hand. Then cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes. With a rolling pin, roll the dough out as thin as possible, about 1/16 of an inch thick if possible. Then slice your noodles however you'd like. For this version of the recipe, I made squares 3 fingers in width. Then let the pasta dry.
3. Set the stock over medium heat and once it's at a rolling boil, add the dried noodles and boil for 8-12 minutes. The length depends on the thickness of the noodle and how well you'd like it done. Once boiled, empty the noodles and broth into a colander.
4. Assemble the lasagna before the noodles cool. One layer of noodles, a light layer of grated cheese, a layer of powder douce to taste. Repeat 2 or 3 times depending on the size of your tray or bowl.

PHOTO CREDITS
Tomatoes: Liz West via flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0

#tastinghistory #lasagna #medievalfood

[TastingHistory]

What kind of lasagna is your favorite? Have you tried any of the less known versions on the list?

[tharos]

"Honey, why are you reading about the Black Death?"

"Oh you know, just want to make some lasagna."

[Will-vjbc]

"and so twice or thrice & serve it forth" - I see what they did there.

[sephirothjc]

I imagine the inventor of the fork, eating with their stick and thinking 'damn I wish I had four of these.'

[northumbriabushcraft]

I haven't heard 'rollin rollin rollin' in years, my uncle got kicked out of a pub for playing it 6 times in a row on the jukebox

[punchek]

That is so interesting, I just realised in Polish we have "łazanki", which is a square -shaped pasta served most often with cooked cabbage. I suppose the square shape is a connecting agent.

[Buzzy_Bee_Thoven]

"This is gonna be a huge bite--"
Proceeds to nibble from the edge

[Khorre]

If you ever get into doing merch, I think a Tasting History apron with the motto "Serve it Forth" would be perfect.

[efjay]

”Macabre, but useful for our lasagna recreation today.”

A very interesting set of words.

[cjspillmann]

"Whatever else you can think of". Hearing that reminded me of the cafeteria at university. One day towards the end of the semester they cleaned out all the frozen foods from the freezers and served us what they called "cream of everything soup". The best part is that nobody could agree on what it tasted like...some said celery, others said potato, yet more said chicken. Good times lol.

[Alphonselle]

It's been 6 months but I still cant believe Max poured all that beef stock into the sink. tears were shed.

[Orzorn]

"1 teaspoon of nutmeg"
James Townsend has joined the chat.

[DanielleStJohn]

That Neapolitan version for sure looks like American lasagna, and given that a significant portion of Italian immigrants to the US were Neapolitan, that *totally* checks out.

[DionysusEleuther]

I had this in a guesthouse in Romania, actually. I didn't catch the name of it (my Romanian was and is extremely limited) but the appearance and the flavor as you describe it was nearly identical, and it was served with the sticks instead of normal cutlery. It wasn't served as if it were an unusual dish they got out of an old book, so it looks like something similar has survived in that area or at least that family to the modern day.

[headrushindi]

Frankly I am surprised that you haven' t got your own Television show. I don't think I can name one TV cook today who has such a well written, researched, and professional show that you are producing . Your personality is just perfect. It keeps me mesmerized and entertained, and I actually learn stuff. Just wonderful !!! As soon as I get the time, You can bet I am gonna whip up some of the dishes you have shared .

[pickledboaby]

WHY DID THIS NOT COME OUT ON A MONDAY *cries in Garfield*

[ariannedechateaumichel]

One thing that strikes me is the similarity between "losenys" and "losenge, " which is the medieval heraldic term (therefore a French term) used to denote a square rotated to be a diamond shape. The losenge is most familiar to us because it was used heraldically instead of the shield shape for a woman's heraldic display. Sounds like those three-finger squares to me!

[TonedMars]

Loving the medieval content. Might as well just cook everything from “The Forme of Cury” 🤷🏻‍♂️

[ashneehs]

I'm on the verge of crying, this is the first time I hear "vincisgrassi" on a lasagna video - they rarely name them in Italian videos as well ç_ç

[MichaelaFreeman]

Here in the Czech Republic, we make noodles with sugar, butter and ground poppy seed, another version with cinnamon sugar. I love it, so I can definitely relate to a sweet lasagna with apples!