Lured into bread: Women in the medieval period would knead DOUGH on their body before baking it and serving it to their husbands in the hope it would improve their sex lives, historian reveals

Daily Mail ^ | 22 April 2022 | Harry Howard

[Trillian]

When we think of people who lived in the Middle Ages, it is usually the crushing poverty and high infant mortality that stand out.

But now a historian of the medieval period has revealed something less well-known: the ploys that women used to get their other halves into bed.

Speaking on a new podcast, Dr Eleanor Janega said that one bizarre method involved wives kneading dough on their naked bodies before baking it to turn it into bread and then serving it to their husbands.

Some medieval women also believed that honey was an aphrodisiac and would smother it 'all over' their bodies before putting it 'in things' and then serving the foods to their other halves.

The historian also quoted from a bizarre 'penitential guide' - questions priests asked members of their congregation to get them to admit their sins - to highlight an even more obscure aphrodisiac.

Written by 10th century bishop Burchard of Worms, it described how 'some women' would put a 'live fish' in their vagina before 'waiting until it is dead' and then cooking it and serving it to their husband.

However, she said the bishop's claims that women actually used the method were 'probably made up'.

Dr Janega was speaking on new History Hit podcast Betwixt the Sheets.

The expert is the author of new book the Middle Ages: A Graphic History, which was published last year.

Speaking of the popular aphrodisiacs, she told host Kate Lister: 'There are a lot of options here, and interestingly a lot of them have to do with eating.

'A lot of the time what it will be is introducing ways of getting your husband to kind of eat something that has been in contact with your body.

[parmamenian]

Pretty sure they recently made a beer this way!

[MD Expat in PA]

Did people in the Middle Ages take baths?

https://www.medievalists.net/2013/04/did-people-in-the-middle-ages-take-baths/

And evidently public bathhouses were popular during the Middle Ages, perhaps a holdover from the Romans.

[freebird5850]

Dill-Dough...

[muir_redwoods]

That’s one of my favorite books ever. I have bought and given away at least a dozen copies to friends. It’s an amazing insight into the times.

[dforest]

Now the bread is all over the inside bulging out.

[bray]

There’s a job hubby won’t mind doing. More flour!

[dljordan]

“I do not want to know where they got the yeast to make that bread.”

Oh man!

[Midwesterner53]

I lost my appetite.

[Vaduz]

aka clitty litter

[Ponyexpress9790]

I guess that’s where the saying “whisker biscuit” came from. Who knew?!!?

[SunkenCiv]

This topic was posted 04/22/2022, thanks Trillian.

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