'Losenges' (or 'Lesynges') appear widely in early cookbooks as a synonym for a form of pasta, either boiled or fried, presumably because of their customary shape. This receipt in Austin 1440 is for an all-meat version, the title meaning 'Lozenges of Meat', 'chare' being either an old Anglo-Norman word for 'flesh' or a relative of 'chare' meaning 'to turn over'.
Original Receipt in the 15th Century 'Austin Manuscripts' (Austin 1440)Lesynges de chare. Take fair buttys of porke; hewe them, & grind them, & caste thereto raw yolks of eggs, & then put it in-to a fair vesselle; & take roysonys of corauns, & dates myncyd, & powder of ginger, pepper, & saffron, & sugar, an melle all thes to-gederys; & make fair paste of sugar & saffron, & salt; temper ther-in, & make ii fair flat cakys ther-of, & lay the stuf ther-on al a-brode on the cake al flat; & than take that other cake, & lay him al a-brode ther-on; & than kytte the cakys thorw with an knyf in maner of lesyngys; & than make fair bature of raw yolks of eggs, sugar, & salt, & close the sydys of the lesyng ther-with, & than fry them in fair grease, & serve forth.
