Leach

Derived from an old French word meaning “slice,” the medieval term leach originally designated several quite different firm or semi-firm foods with relatively smooth textures, including date pastes and forcemeats. However, leach most often referred to a stiff sweetened gelatin of almond milk or cream that was a favorite dish at medieval feasts and at the early modern English sweets meals called banquets. In the last third of the seventeenth century, gelatin leach was absorbed by the modern cream gelatins called flummery or blancmange (which see).