Leche Lumbard, Spiced Date Slices (1430)
Reader ratingsLeche lumbard, spiced date slices: dates simmered in sweet wine, boiled stiff with sugar, kneaded with ginger, cinnamon and breadcrumbs, sliced and served with a spiced wine syrup.
- Recipe makes
- About 20 slices, 8 servings
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Let the shaped paste firm up for at least 3 hours, or overnight, before slicing.
Leche Lumbard, slices of spiced date paste with a red wine syrup.
The story behind the recipe
Leche lumbarde is on the second course of Henry IV’s coronation feast, between fried brawn and the subtlety that closed the course. A leche is a dish firm enough to be sliced, and this one is made of dates. The recipe in the same manuscript says to stone the dates and boil them in sweet wine, pound them, strain them with a little white wine and sugar, and boil the paste until stiff. It is then laid on a board, worked by hand with ginger and cinnamon until it can be sliced, and served with clarrey, a spiced wine, poured over “in maner of a Syryppe,” like a syrup.
What was a leche?
The book has a whole section of leche dishes, sliced meats and pastes, and two versions of this one. If the paste is not stiff enough, it says, crumble in hard egg yolks or grated bread. The second version swaps the dates for clarified honey, stiffened with egg yolks and bread and seasoned with pepper. Thomas Austin, the book’s editor in 1888, points to a banquet in John Leland’s Collectanea where a Leche Lombard was even gilt “for purpose of display.” Both were written down in the 1430s or 1440s, a generation after the coronation.
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
Any sweet white wine works for the boiling; not all of its alcohol cooks off. Grated bread makes the paste stiff enough to slice. The manuscript says only “wine” for the clarrey; red is our choice, boiled with honey and spices into a short syrup. Forgotten Drink, our sister site, has the drink itself, Clarrey, Medieval Honeyed Spiced Wine (opens in a new tab), from the companion manuscript of about 1450. For an alcohol-free version, use white grape juice for the dates and red grape juice for the syrup.
The tart from the first course is Crustade Lumbard, Custard Tart (1430), with the same dates. Henry’s day, from the Abbey to the Champion’s challenge, is in What Was Served at Henry IV’s Coronation Feast?
Leche lumbarde.—Take Datys, an do a-way þe stonys, & seþe in swete Wyne; take hem vppe, an grynd hem in a mortere; ...
Recipe makes: About 20 slices, 8 servings
Ingredients
For about 20 slices, 8 servings. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for about 20 slices, 8 servings.
Date paste
- Pitted dates400 g
- Sweet white wine300 ml
- Sugar30 g
- Ground ginger1 tsp
- Ground cinnamon1 tsp
- Fine fresh white breadcrumbs40 g
Spiced wine syrup
- Red wine200 ml
- Honey2 tbsp
- Ground ginger1/4 tsp
- Ground cinnamon1/4 tsp
- Black pepper1 pinch
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 400 g pitted dates
- 300 ml sweet white wine
- 30 g sugar
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 40 g fine fresh white breadcrumbs
- 200 ml red wine
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch black pepper
Equipment
- Medium heavy saucepan
- Food processor or mortar and pestle
Small saucepan- Loaf pan, about 20 x 10 cm, lined with parchment
Instructions
Simmer the dates in the sweet white wine in the medium saucepan, covered, for 15 minutes, until very soft.
Purée the dates with their liquid in the food processor until smooth. Return the purée to the pan with the sugar.
Cook over low heat, stirring all the time, for 15 to 20 minutes, until the paste is thick, dull and pulls away from the pan in one mass.
Tip the paste onto a board and leave until cool enough to handle. Sprinkle over the ginger, cinnamon and breadcrumbs and knead them in until the paste is firm and no longer sticky.
Press it into the lined loaf pan, smooth the top, cover and leave in a cool place for at least 3 hours, until firm.
For the syrup, boil the red wine, honey, ginger, cinnamon and pepper in the small saucepan for 8 to 10 minutes, until reduced by about half. Leave to cool.
Turn out the paste and cut it into slices about 1 cm thick. Lay them on a plate and spoon the syrup over and around them.
Nutrition
240calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 20 slices, 8 servings
- Servings
- 8
Estimated per serving from USDA FoodData Central values for dates, sugar, breadcrumbs and honey, with wine counted as partly reduced.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Keep about 10 g of breadcrumbs to each 100 g of dates; add a few more if the paste is soft.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
The paste keeps several days, wrapped, in the refrigerator; slice it as needed. The syrup keeps 3 days. Contains wheat (gluten) and sulfites (wine).
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Harleian MS. 279, Leche lumbarde, as printed in Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books, ed. Thomas Austin (London: Early English Text Society, 1888)
Recipe details
- Course
- Dessert
- Dish family
- Desserts & Sweets
- Region
- British
- Era
- Medieval
- Main ingredient
- Fruit
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Occasion
- State banquet