[Sca-cooks] RE: Sca-cooks digest, Vol 1 #1696 - 16 msgs

[Generys ferch Ednuyed]

> A friend of mine sent me the below reference for lasagne, and I was
> wondering if anyone has a recipe correlating to that period?
>
> "Translated diary of Marchionne Di Coppo Stefani
> March 1348 Florence
>
> "all the citizens did little else except carry dead bodies to be
buried....
> At every church they dug deep pits down to the wather level; and thus
those
> who were poor who died during the night were bundled up quickly and thrown
> into the pit. In the morning when a large number of bodies were found in
the
> pit, they took some earth and shovelled it down on top of them; and later
> others were placed  on top of them and another layer of earth, just as one
> makes lasagne with layers of pasta and cheese."
>
> Platt, C. King Death: The Black Death and its aftermath in late-medieval
> England , UCL Press 1996 (translation on page 4 with follow up original
> manuscript reference) "
>
> Ciao,
> Lucrezia
> --

There are two references to lasagne in the book _The Medieval Kitchen_ by
Redon and Sabban.  One is actually referring to bands of pie crust on top of
a pie.  The other is from the Liber de Coquina, which unfortunately I don't
have a date for, but it's either 14th or 15th century.  Anyway...

"Of Lasagne.  To make lasagne take fermented dough and make into as thin a
shape as possible.  Then divide it into squares of three fingerbreadths per
side.  Then take salted boiling water and cook those lasagne in it.  And
when they are fully cooked, add grated cheese.  And, if you like, you can
also add good powdered spices and powder them on them when they are on the
trencher. Then put on a layer of lasagne and powder spices again; and on top
another layer and powder, and continue until the trencher or bowl is full.
Then eat them by taking them up with a pointed wooden stick. "

I also have a redaction of this, but I'm not going to include it unless
someone asks me for it specifically, as it's a lot of typing (if you want
it, I can scan it and send you a pdf, but i can't send that to the list).  I
have not, however, tried making this...

Generys