MC Logo

Medieval Cookery - A Dictionary of Middle-English Cooking Terms


The index below covers a range of Middle-English terms used in medieval English cooking texts. Included are some of the more unusual spelling variants for modern words, English words still in use but considered archaic or old fashioned, and words common to England that may be unknown elsewhere (e.g. the names of English river fish).

Currently listed are terms used in Forme of Cury and Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books .



L

lamprouns (also: laumprey, laumpreys, laumprouns, lomprey) : Lampreys.


langdebef (also: longebeff) : Lang de Boeuf or Ox-tongue (Picris echiodes). May also have been bugloss or a type of borage.

lardons : Matchstick-shaped slivers of fat.

laue (also: lave) : Wash. (from French)

leche (also: lesh, leshe) : Slice.

leches (also: lesshes) : Slices.

lete : Milk. (from French)

letelorye (also: letlardys) : A milk custard with added fat. (from French)

lewe (also: lews) : Lukewarm.

lire (also: lyuer, lyuoers, lyuour) : Flesh.

loche (also: looches) : Loach. A type of freshwater fish.


loseyns (also: losyns, lozeyns) : Lozenges. Pasta cut into diamond shapes.

lucys (also: luce) : Pike. A type of freshwater fish.


lye (also: alay, lyes) : To mix with. Similar to temper.

lyed (also: alayed) : To mix with. Similar to temper.

lyng : Cod (Gadus morhua).