"Aphrodisiacs"

What sayeth you, LadyRay? Are we digressing from the topics of cello and crafts? Yes. I MUST share this information with you though.

My dear neighbor, Lally, just moved out of our building. She gave me a bunch of stuff before moving, and one of items was a book called Brews and Potions: a Hand Book of Remedies, Spells, Elixirs, Cordialls, and Aphrodisiacs. It's compiled by Maurice Rickards, published by Hugh Evelyn Ltd. (London), and there is not date on the book. It's a funky little hardback book, and the pages are yellow with age.

My favorite recipe that I have found so far is by Cartoleomeo Scappi, who was a "private chef to His Holiness Pope Pius V." This what gold ol' Carty has to say about making a good aphrodisiac:

"To make a pie of bulls' testicles, take four of them and boil them in water and sale. Cut them in slices, sprinkle them with white pepper, salt, cinnamon and nutteg. Prepare separately a mince of lambs' kidney, gravy, three slices of lean ham, a good pinch of chopped marjoram, thyme, and three cloves. Prepare the pastry for the pie. Then begin to make a layer on your pie dish with the ham, then a layer of slices of testicles, sprinkle well with mince, and so on. Before shutting the pie, add a glass of wine. Put it in the oven and serve hot."

This may just inspire me to make a polymer pie of bull balls.