[Sca-cooks] Thoughts on food as medicine

[Raphaella DiContini]

Greetings, 
      I'm currently doing research on fertility and childbirth in Renaissance 
Italy.  This is a slight tangent in the overall focus of the paper I'm working 
on that will look at food recommendations for all stages of fertility from 
what would supposedly help in getting pregnant (and what would supposedly help 
create a much desired male child), through all stages of pregnancy and 
finally possibly tying up with the symbolic food related gifts the mother was 
given after birth.   
 
One of the things that caught my eye when reading "Diet during Pregnancy in the 
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries by MICHAEL K. ESHLEMAN" was a mention of 
something I had seen before in Italian sources (this article is fantastic but is 
focused on English sources). One of the things that jumped out at me in this 
article is a list of diet recommendations for women who are weak and thin or 
experiencing blood loss (with their capitalization, but my emphasis)-" A 
strengthening and cooling Diet, feeding on Meat that breeds good Blood and 
thinkens it; as are good Broths made with Poultry; Necks of Mutton, Knuckles of 
Veal, in which are proper for her: *Ler her drink the Water in which Iron is 
quenched*, with a little syrup of Quince... " From Mauriceau, Diseases.
The part about the quince syrup is new to me, but I've definitely heard 
recommendations for water in which a hot iron has been quenched in my Italian 
sources. The one I have closest to hand is from Marinello “Wine is beneficial 
for the stomach and generates good spirits and heat. A light red is best, and if 
you mix it with water, then use water in which you have extinguished a hot 
Iron". [Giovanni] Michele Savanarola also mentions both wine and water, but says 
that a mother to be should drink red wine that is "subtle, aromatic and well 
aged", which could be mixed with a "little water" if it's felt that such a wine 
should be an aperitif. White wine should be avoided until the ninth month, 
although it's apparently it's more fashionable for ladies as he says "it's true 
the white wine looks better in your hand". Most tellingly he says that "Cold 
water is not good at all - better to drink wine". 
 
At first I thought this recommendation could be potentially a) to balance the 
humors to more hot than the cold nature of water, b) to purify the water making 
it safer to drink, or c) to act as an Iron supplement, like cooking something in 
cast iron. That this reference specifically calls for it context of women who 
are weak or have experienced blood loss it leads me to see this more as a way to 
introduce more Iron into the diet, like a supplement.
I've got a couple of potential blacksmith volunteers who will allow me 
to  fill a quenching barrel/ bucket/ whatever for him and keep a sample of the 
water as a control. I'd like to then test the water after the first three 
quenches as a baseline idea of the increase per quench (if it's enough to even 
register) and then test it again at the end of the day. If we did this at June 
Fair I could even potentially test it again at the end of Sunday. I'm also 
hoping to test for bacteria at the same time as I do the Iron testing so I can 
test both the sterelizing and enriching theories. I've found two options each 
for the bacterial and Iron testing, but I have no idea what might work best for 
these experiments. 

 
 
In joyous service, 
Raffaella di Contino / Heather Ruiter 
P.S. My life is just starting to calm down after returning to work 
post-maternity leave. I'll be posting more information about AnTir's upcoming 
Culinary Sympsoium very soon! 

Two options for testing for bacteria
http://www.filterwater.com/p-42-science-project-kit.aspx
http://www.filterwater.com/p-43-pool-and-spa-bacteria-test.aspx
In addition to the Iron testing kits here- I haven't decided on which I should 
get. 

http://www.omega.com/pptst/WTS_Series.html
WTS-480125 $20.00... Iron test,30 individual foil pkts: 0, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 
0.3, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0 PPM (mg/L) qty. 

WTS-480025 $14.00 Iron test, bottle of 25: 0, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 
0.75, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0 PPM (mg/L)