[Sca-cooks] Thoughts on food as medicine

[Daniel Myers]

This sounds like an awesome experiment.  I'd love to hear how it goes.

I've got a bit of a background in bacteriology, and I'd be surprised to
see any significant change in the bacteria level - it's possible,
especially given a small amount of water and a large piece of iron, but
I don't think it's likely.  On the other hand, biology is messy and full
of surprises.

- Doc


> -------- Original Message --------
> From: Raphaella DiContini <raphaellad at yahoo.com>
> Date: Thu, January 13, 2011 6:38 pm
> 
> 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)