Part Two. Medicine and Recipes. Chapters 6-9.Chapter 6 (Grivetti) explores the history and use of chocolate as medicine from early Pre-Columbian times Meso-America, through the early Spanish colonial period in Mexico, and ultimately into traditional medicine as practiced in Europe and North America during the 16th - 19th centuries. Chapter 7 (Grivetti) examines the Boston smallpox epidemic of 1764 and how fear gripped city elders and merchants, causing many to flee and locate to Boston suburbs with their chocolate inventory in attempts to avoid the pox. His chapter reveals how doctors and pharmacists of the era used chocolate during treatment of smallpox cases. Chapter 8 (Grivetti) identifies a suite of chocolate recipes that date from Pre-Columbian times through early 19th century European and North American culinary traditions. His chapter draws sharp distinctions between ingredients used to manufacture chocolate before and after 1492, to separate indigenous New World recipes from those developed during the colonial era and later. Chapter 9 (Pucciarelli) continues the theme of culinary chocolate and discusses chocolate recipes published in North American cookbooks during the 19th century. Her chapter documents for the first time the importance of these early cookbooks and how recipes and advice contained therein imparted dietary advice and moral values to women of the era. |
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