On Pasta and Pancakes
The following information is gathered from web studies and teaching files in the Bordermarch Cooks’ Guild. Somewhat a cut-and-paste; is easy access here. Info researched and gathered by Tessa of the Gardens, July, 2005.
Lasagne
According to the food historians, lasagne [long flat strips of dried wheaten
dough] were probably the earliest forms of pasta. They were laid out to harden
in the hot mediterranean sun and cut with simple rollers designed expressly to
create a curly, interlocking edge. Serving instructions for the very first
lasagnes were not much different from other than flat breads. Medieval lasagnes
were typically creamy, sweet, layered
macaroni and cheese type dishes, often eaten during Christian Lent. This is
a far cry from the meat, ricotta,
tomato sauce, and mozzerella topped dish we Americans think of as lasagne
today. How things do change with time!
"Lasagne
probably one of the earliest forms of pasta...consists of fairly flat sheets of
pasta, typically interleaved with a savoury mixture and baked in the oven...Some
believe that its remote ancestor was the classical Greek laganon; this was a
flat cake, not pasta as we know it now, but capable of developing in that
direction. In classical Rome this was cut into strips and became known as lagani
(plural). Cicero (1st century AD) was known to have been particularly fond of
lagani. So was the Roman poet Horace, of the same century. He sited them as an
example of simple peasant's food while boasting of his simple way of
life...something which could be called lasagne in the modern sense had appeared
in Italy by the 13th century...Since medieval times, lasagne have been a popular
feature in the range of pasta products. Recipes have changed over the centuries,
but the advantages of a pasta which comes in sheet form...have been a constant
in the kitchen."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University
Press:Oxford] (p. 444)
"Though some authorities believe the word [lasagne] derives from Vulgar Latin
lasania (cooking pot), the ancient Romans made laganum, which referred to strips
of dough baked on a flat surface. Since lasagne requires a baking oven, which
for most of Italian history was to be found only in the kitchens of the wealthy
families, the dish was considered to be a lavish one..."
---Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New
York] 1998 (p. 134)
"While lasagne are the culmination of a pasta-making tradition dating back to
antiquity, the origin of macaroni and vermicelli, first metioned in medieval
Italian cooking treatises, is far less certain...."
---Medieval Kitchen: Recipes From France and Italy, Odile Redon et al
[University of Chicago:Chicago] 1998 (p. 58-60)
[NOTE: this book contains far more information than is transcribed here. Ask
your librarian to help you find a copy.]
Compare an original 1390 recipe for loseyns (lasagne) recipe with a modern redaction.
Macaroni & cheese
Who invented macaroni & cheese? No one knows for sure, although the food historians generally credit the ancient Greeks and Romans for coming up with the idea of combining these two foods. The origin of pasta/noodles/macaroni is a matter of culinary controversy (Ancient Rome? Etruscans? China? Korea?). According to the Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson, [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (page 159) "Cheese is one of the oldest of made foods, dating back to the prehistoric beginnings of herding. As with all fermented products, it seems likely that the discovery of cheese was accidental..."
We do know that medieval macaroni dishes (lasagnes & raviolis) were made with cheese and sweetened with nuts and spices (The Medieval Cookbook, Maggie Black, Lasagne with cheese (pages 90-91). These would have tasted quite different from the mac and cheese we eat today. Colonial American cookbooks contained recipes for macaroni and cheese in the English tradition:
"Despite the many varieties, the most common name for pasta in later Medieval Italy seems to have been macaroni', although this now means the round as contrasted with the flat kind. The fourteenth century English Forme of Cury gives a recipes for macrows (an anglicized plural) that unquestionably produces a flat result; the recipes even recommends serving it strewn with morsels of butter, and with grated cheese on the side. In its native land it does not seem to have been regarded as a very high-class food; in the sixteenth century
"Cheese is the earliest condiment for pasta of which we have documentation.
Even before the earliest recipes were written, cheese with pasta was the delight
of the bon vivants of the Middle Ages...Present in all the medieval collections
of recipes that feature pasta, grated cheese was often mixed with
spices..."These tortelli must be yellow and strongly spiced, serve them in bowls
with plenty of pepper and grated cheese...Although it was abandoned by the elite
beginning in the seventeenth century, the mixture of cheese and spices continued
in popular use. Pasta was served with a carpet of well-aged grated cheese in
taverns frequented by Pere Labat in the turn of the eighteenth century."
---Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food, Silvano Serventi & Francoise
Sabban [Columbia University Press:New York] 2000 (p. 258-9)
"...we can establish the venerableness of the dish we call macaroni cheese
from the following recipe which must have been introduced from Italy... into the
court cookery of Richard II [1367-1400]. Macrows. Take and make a thin foil of
dough, and carve it in pieces, and cast them on boiling water, and seeth it
well. Take cheese, and grate it, and butter, cast beneath, and above as for
losenges, and serve it forth.' It was apparently not made in England during the
next few hundred years, but it returned from Italy in the eighteenth
century...when Elizabeth Raffald published a very good recipe entitled "To dress
macaroni with Parmesan cheese."
---Food and Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C.
Anne Wilson (p. 252)
Pasta, in many shapes and forms, has been enjoyed by many different cultures and cuisines for thousands of years. Who invented this food, where and when? That's very much a matter of culinary debate. You will find a detailed discussion of the subject here. More history here.
Ancient and Medieval pasta dishes were both savory (made with meat, pepper, onion, saffron) and sweet (made with honey, nuts, and soft cheeses). According to the food historians, layered & stuffed pastas (lasagne, ravioli) are a Medieval invention. In European/Christian cultures they were often served with cheese during Christian Lent and other meat-abstaining days.
17th and 18th century English and American cookbooks contain recipes for macrows, or macaroni. Thomas Jefferson is said to have introduced the first pasta machine to America in 1787. Tomatoes are a new world food and were not combined with pasta until the 16th century.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Compare and contrast the following M & C recipes from different time periods:
[1390]
A modern
redaction of the original Forme of Cury recipe.
[15th century]
"Roman noodles
Blend meal which has which has been separated from chaff with water in the best
way. When it has been blended, spread it out on a board and roll it with a
rounded and oblong piece of wood such as bakers are accustomed to use in such a
trade. Then when it has been drawn out to the width of a finger, cut it. It is
so long you would call it a fillet. It ought to be cooked in rich and
continuallly boiling broth, but it, at the time, it must be cooked in water, put
in butter and salt. When it is cooked, it ought to be put in a pan with cheese,
butter, sugar, and sweet spices."
---De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine [On Right Pleasure and Good
Health], Platina, Book VII, recipe 43, translated by Mary Ella Milham, Italy
15th century (p. 329)
[1769]
"To dress Macaroni with Parmesan Cheese
Boil four ounces of macaroni till it be quite tender and lay it on a sieve to
drain. Then put it in a tossing pan with about a gill of good cream, a lump of
butter rolled in flour, boil it five minutes. Pour it on a plate, lay all over
it parmesan cheese toasted. Send to to the table on a water plate, for it soon
goes cold."
---The Experience Engish Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald, introduction by
Roy Shipperbottom [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1997 (p. 144)
Ravioli
Pasta (in many different shapes and sizes) is an ancient food. It was enjoyed by
many peoples in many cultures. Stuffed pasta (ravioli, wonton, kreplach) is
likewise a food shared by many cultures and cuisines. Food historians generally
agree that stuffed pastas (and related recipes such as lasagna) were probably
introduced in Medieval times. Cookbooks confirm European and Middle Eastern
medieval pasta dishes could have been sweet (filled with cheese, honey, nuts,
and cinnamon) or savoury (filled with meat, pepper, and saffron). Asian wontons
were typically steamed or fried and were served with local vegetables.
Tomato sauce was not served with pasta products in early in Medieval times
but toward the end of the era. Tomatoes were introduced to Europe in the late
1400’s century by explorers.
"Ravioli: the archtypal stuffed pasta of the western world, can be presumed
to be Italian in origin but had started to appear as far away as England by the
14th century (when the Forme of Cury gave a recipe for rauioles), and was known
in the south of France in medieval times. So far as Italy is concerned, the
earliest records of ravioli seem to be in some of the 140,000 preserved letters
of Francesco di Marco, a merchant of Prato in the 14th century. They are
described as being stuffed with pounded pork, eggs, cheese, parsley, and sugar;
while in Lent a filling of herbs, cheese, and spices was used. There were both
sweet and savoury kinds..."
---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University
Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 655)
"The small, stuffed Italian shapes such as a ravioli and tortellini (both
attested from the middle of the thirteenth century) also had parallels
elsewhere, including China (won ton), Russia (pel'meni), Tibet (momo), and in
the Jewish kitchen, (kreplachs). It has been suggested that some of the forms
may have originated in the Near East and been transmitted in an arc from there,
which would certainly be consistent with the general historical pattern."
---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers Press:New York] 1988 (p.
236)
"The history of ravioli is quite old. Leaving aside for the moment as to
whether the Central Asian manti can be considered a ravioli, the earliest
evidence we have of ravioli in the Mediterranean is found in the statutes of the
Cathedral of Nice in 1233, which report of crosete sui rafiole', a ravioli
pie..."
---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A. Wright [William Morrow:New York]
1999 (p. 298)
"According to the sixteenth-century Italian historians, we owe pasta stuffed
with chopped meat or herbs, cheese or even fish to a peasant woman of Cernusco
called Libista...The ravioli of the fourteenth-century cookery books were
usually deep-fried, like fritters...in its early days ravioli generally meant a
stuffing made of meat, cheese, eggs and herbs wrapped in dough, a dish like
modern canneloni...one of the oldest recipes of the kind [1481], for tortelli'
in the Assissi manner'. These tortelli' do not even use a dough wrapping for the
stuffing; the instructions are simply to roll the chopped meat mixture in flour.
This coating of flour, having absorved the fat from the chopped meat, would have
coagulated slightly in the hot broth into which the tortelli were put to be
cooked...Raviolo were eaten at banquets too, and were clearly very popular in
Prato. They were not served alone, but as a garnish to a torta made of several
layers of pastry filled with chicken fried in oil, garlic sausage, ravioli
stuffed wtih ham, almonds, and dates. Pastry lid covered the whole torta, and it
was cooked in the embers."
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat [Barnes & Noble Books:New
York] 1992(p. 193)
"Ravioli. The world may derive form the Latin rabiola...whos shape was
imitated in the ravioli, or from ravolgere (to wrap). The city of Cremona claims
to have created ravioli. But Genoa claims them, too, insisting the word actually
dates to their dialect word for the pasta, rabiole, which means "something of
little value" and supposedly came from the practice of thrifty sailors who
stuffed any and all leftovers into pasta to be used for another meal."
---Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New
York] 1998 (p. 213)
15th century Italian Ravioli recipe
"Ravioli. Get a pound and a half of old cheese and a little new creamy cheese,
and a pound of porkbelly or loin of veal that should be boiled until well
cooked, then grind it up well; get well ground fragrant herbs, pepper, cloves,
ginger and saffron, adding in a well ground breast of capon, and mix in all of
this together; make a thin dough and wrap nut-sized amounts of the mixture in
it; set these ravioli to cook in the fat broth of a capon or of some other good
meat, with a little saffron, and let them boil for half an hour; then dish them
out, garnishing them with a mixture of grated chreese and good spices."
---The Neapolitan Recipe Collection, Cuoco Napoletano [Martino], Critical
edition and English translation by Terence Scully [University of Michigan
Press:Ann Arbor] 2000 (p. 177)
[NOTE: This book contains the original Latin text. If you need this ask your
librarian can help you obtain a copy.]
Did you know that the first pancake-type foods were eaten by ancient peoples? No, they were not the same pancakes we eat today. These simple, fried concoctions of milk, flour, eggs and spices were called "Alita Dolcia" (Latin for "another sweet") by the Ancient Romans. Depending upon the proportion of ingredients and method of cooking, the finished product might have approximated pancakes, fritters, omlettes, or custard. Some of these dishes were sweet (fruit, nuts, honey); others were savory (cheese, fish, meat). These ancient recipes are also thought to be the relatives of waffles, cakes, muffins, fritters, spoonbread and doughnuts. Pancakes, as we Americans know them today, were "invented" in Medieval Europe.
Throughout history, pancake ingredients (finest available wheat flour, buckwheat, cornmeal, potatoes), cooking implements (ancient bakestones, medieval hearths, pioneer griddles perched on campfire embers, microwave ovens), social rituals (Shrove Tuesday crepes, Chanukah latkes, mass quantities for community fundraisers) and final product (thick or thin, savory or sweet, slathered with butter and smothered with syrup, or gently rolled around delicate fruit) have reflected regional cuisine and local customs. Cake-like galettes [France], thick potato pancakes [Germany], Boxty [Ireland], paper thin crepes [France], palascinta [Hungary] drop scones [Scotland], coarse cornmeal Indian cakes [colonial America], rich blini [Russia], poori [India], qata'if (Middle East) dadar gutung [Indonesia], bao bing [China] and simply-add-water instant mixes [late 20th century] are all members of the pancake family.
The connection between pancakes and Shrove Tuesday (the day before the Christian season of Lent begins) is rooted in the need to deplete stores of eggs and fat...both forbidden by the Catholic Church for consumption during Lent. The practice began in Medieval times and continues today (in some places) in the form of Pancake day. There are many customs connected with this day. The Olney pancake race is said to be one of the oldest.
"The griddle method of cooking is older than oven baking, and pancakes are an
ancient form. The first pancakes clearly distinguishable from plain griddle
breads are sweet ones mentioned by Apicius; these were made from a batter of
egg, mixed milk and water, and a little flour, fried and served with pepper and
honey. An English culinary manuscript of about 1430 refers to pancakes in a way
which implies that the term was already familiar, but it does not occur often in
the early printed cookery books...Throughout Europe pancakes had a place among
Easter foods, especially on Shrove Tuesday (or Mardi Gras), the last day before
Lent. Customs varied from country to country...One peculiarly English
institution is the pancake race. The oldest of these has been held at Olney in
Buckinghamshire, in most years since 1445..."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University
Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 571)
"Pancakes are traditionally served on Candlemas and Shrove Tuesday, to
celebrate renewal, family life, and hopes for good fortune and happiness in the
future. It is customary in France to touch the handle of the frying pan, and
make a wish while the pancake is turned, holding a coin in the hand. In French
rural society, crepes were also considered to be a symbol of allegiance: farmers
offered them to their landowner...."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Jenifer Harvey Lang, New American Edition
[Crown Publishers:New York]1989 (p. 332)
"Pancakes, which were so popular in all classes, could be made with the
simplest kind of equipment. A skillet and a grill over a heap of small coals or
wood were alll that was needed. For the hurried professional cook, pancakes were
a boon. They were easily an quickly prepared. They were also useful to
intersperse with the fish and egg dishes for fast- or fish-day meals, as well as
to fill menus on meat days. One of the advantages of such batters, then and now,
is that they can be mixed up ahad of time."
---Dining With William Shakespeare, Madge Lorwin [Atheneum:New York] 1976
(p. 141)
According to the Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare, Marvin Spevack, Shakespeare mentions pancakes four times in two plays. Both plays were comedies and both characters referencing this food were clowns. Interesting, yes?
All's Well that Ends Well
"As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney, as your French crown for you taffety punk, as Tib's rush for Tom's forefinger, as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a morris for May-day, as the nail to his hole, the cockold to his horn, as a scolding quean to a wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the friar's mouth, nay, as the pudding to his skin." [2.02 23]
As You Like It
"Of a certain knight, that swore by his honor they were good pancakes, and wore by his honor the mustard was naught. Now I'll stand to it, the pancakes were naught, and the mustard was good, and yet was not the knight forsworn." [1.02 64-7]
In Sweden, pancakes are traditional Thursday winter's night dessert, following pea soup. This hearty combination has been enjoyed since the Middle Ages:
"Swedish pea soup is regarded as a real national dish. It has been served
every Thursday in most Swedish homes for hundreds of years. During the cold
winter it makes a very satisfying meal, economical as well as filling. The soup
is served as a main course with boiled pork, The traditional dessert after pea
soup is Swedish Pancakes or "Plattar", served with jam or lingonberrries...It
makes very good eating, although it is a bit on the heavy side for modern poeple...The
exact cooking time of the peas is hard to say, some peas take longer than
others. There is no harm in overcooking, so you can easily cook soup ahead of
time."
---Swedish Cooking at its Best, Marianne Gronwall van der Tuuk [Rand
McNally:Chicago] 1962 (p. 62)
The Food Timeline--history notes: muffins to yogurt
Last modified August 29, 2005