The World's Largest Lasagna Weighed Over 10,000 Pounds

If you think preparing a classic lasagna recipe for tonight's extended family dinner seems to be a demanding chore, imagine trying to figure out the ingredient ratios to set a world record for making the comforting dish. A group of Polish chefs took this challenge on, creating a behemoth of a meal to honor the Italian soccer team who made Krakow their home base during the 2012 Euro Cup.

This monstrosity of a gastronomic effort required 10 hours to make and only one section was baked at a time before being offered to locals and visitors to eat. Though the executive chef of the project admitted to curious reporters that he wasn't sure if the athletes themselves could tuck into the feast due to dietary restrictions, approximately 10,000 servings were distributed to spectators (per Sports Illustrated), and the 10,725-pound, 7-ounce accomplishment placed the ambitious culinary project firmly into the Guinness World Book of Records where it remains a crowning achievement.

In the United States, a group at Cornell took a stab at setting the record but came up short, producing a meat lasagna measuring 63 feet by 17 feet and weighing in at 3,477 pounds. "It took hours to get to an even temperature, and sadly, we still fell short of the official world record, only nabbing The Largest Lasagna in the United States," writes Mat Zucker. Another group in Ohio admitted that attempting the world record feat isn't easy. From sourcing ingredients to outfitting chefs with hair nets and gloves, cooking up large lasagna comes with a significant amount of stress. 

In Poland, over 5,500 pounds of pasta sheets were used to make the record-winning dish with nearly 2,000 pounds of mince, over 880 pounds of mozzarella cheese, more than 100 gallons of tomato sauce, and over 400 pounds of peas and carrots. Somewhere around 5,000 pairs of hands helped create this beast of a recipe. It's no wonder this record has yet to be beaten. Perhaps the next attempt will be a vegetarian-friendly lasagna.