Leaches

Derived from the Old French lesche, the medieval leach was simply a slice. It might be cut from a joint of meat, but there were numerous recipes for binding various ingredients into a solid mass which could then be sliced, dished, coated in a piquant sauce, and garnished ready for the table. Some recipe manuscripts have whole sections dedicated to these ‘Leche Vyaundes’ or ‘sliced foods’, some being of meat or fish set with their own juices, or combinations of various foods set with eggs, rice flour, breadcrumbs, curds, cheese, or blood.¹ For the cook, they had the great advantage of being able to be prepared well before a meal was to be served, most being cold dishes, sometimes ‘revived’ with a hot sauce just before being sent to the table. For the diner, meanwhile, they provided a whole range of well-flavoured, delicate dishes, all easy to cut, masticate and digest, even with poor teeth. The following recipes include meat, fish, egg and cereal leaches, those for posset and curd leach being in the dairy chapter and for sweet leaches and gingerbreads in the confectionery chapter.