WEBVTT - How Did a Parisian Lemonade Craze Fight the Plague?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain stuff from how Stuff Works. Hey there,

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<v Speaker 1>brain stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. In the seventeenth century,

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<v Speaker 1>a return of plague, also known as the Black Death,

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<v Speaker 1>killed about one million people in France. Oddly enough, the

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<v Speaker 1>residents of Paris were largely unaffected, despite having the same

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<v Speaker 1>rat problem as any other large city. The rodents carried

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<v Speaker 1>fleas that bore the plague. After the plague killed the rats,

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<v Speaker 1>the fleas often hopped onto human hosts. In this way,

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<v Speaker 1>the plague spread like wildfire, snuffing out life after life.

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<v Speaker 1>The Parisian's miraculous avoidance of the plague could have remained

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<v Speaker 1>one of history's mysteries, but author Tom Nielan squeezed a

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<v Speaker 1>potential explanation out of seemingly desperated events. A purveyor of

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<v Speaker 1>rare books, Neilon is not only a connoisseur of history,

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<v Speaker 1>but of the impact that condiments and food stuffs may

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<v Speaker 1>have had on antiquity. His new book of Food Fights

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<v Speaker 1>and Culture Wars follows these sometimes surprising influence food has

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<v Speaker 1>had throughout history. Neilan says health food were intimately connected

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<v Speaker 1>for the longest time. Early collections of recipes frequently mixed

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<v Speaker 1>medical and cookery receipts as recipes were called, so it's

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<v Speaker 1>easy to start to conflate them when you're studying the

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<v Speaker 1>period and old cookbooks. Even after they started to separate,

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<v Speaker 1>the Renaissance Book of Secrets kept elements of food and

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<v Speaker 1>home remedies together for centuries longer in the case of Paris,

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<v Speaker 1>and it's largely unscathed population. In the sixteen hundreds, the

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<v Speaker 1>timing of a lemonade trend and the timing of a

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<v Speaker 1>plague coincided, and Nilan wondered whether it was more than

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<v Speaker 1>a coincidence. Up until the sixteen hundreds, lemons had been

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<v Speaker 1>a rare and expensive fruit. All the lemon trees had

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<v Speaker 1>been cultivated throughout Europe and Asia in the preceding decades,

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<v Speaker 1>and a few recipes using lemon as an ingredient had emerged.

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<v Speaker 1>The citrus fruit was a little used in England and France,

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<v Speaker 1>both because of cost and the notion that eating raw

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<v Speaker 1>lemons was harmful. Then an increase in trade and a

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<v Speaker 1>fascination with lemonade popularized the tart fruit, so that by

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<v Speaker 1>the mid sixteen hundreds it was widely available. Nilan explained,

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<v Speaker 1>during the Renaissance, lemons had been bread and domesticated enough,

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<v Speaker 1>and trade had become organized enough that lemons were sufficiently

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<v Speaker 1>inexpensive in the mid seventeenth century to import in bulk.

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<v Speaker 1>Lemonade was all the fashion in a number of cities

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<v Speaker 1>in Italy at the time, especially Rome, and the fad

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<v Speaker 1>spread from there. The cookbook liquis ineur Francois, published in

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<v Speaker 1>sixteen fifty one and written by chef Francois Pierre Lavarenne,

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<v Speaker 1>is considered one of the founding texts of modern French cuisine.

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<v Speaker 1>It included a recipe that combined lemon juice, water and sugar.

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<v Speaker 1>This recipe also contributed to the popularity of lemonade in France.

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<v Speaker 1>And with all this lemonade came lots and lots of

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<v Speaker 1>lemon peels. Lemon peels were everywhere, in the garbage, in

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<v Speaker 1>the gutter, in the river, anywhere that you could find rats.

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<v Speaker 1>It was this fortuitous combination of rats and lemon peels

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<v Speaker 1>that may have stopped the spread of plague. Lemon peels

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<v Speaker 1>contain lemoning, a natural ingredient that kills flea larvae and

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<v Speaker 1>adult fleas. The more people that made lemonade and discarded

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<v Speaker 1>the lemon peels, the more the rats nibbled on the peel,

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<v Speaker 1>inadvertently ingesting, lemoning, and killing fleas and their eggs. Neil

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<v Speaker 1>And says the lemoning disrupted the spread of fleas from

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<v Speaker 1>the rats to people. Because the plague kills so quickly,

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<v Speaker 1>the fleas needed to move from rats to people back

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<v Speaker 1>to rats over and over again to keep it going

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<v Speaker 1>as their hosts expired. Lemoning, a flea killer that is

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<v Speaker 1>still broadly used in pet treatments, killed the fleas and

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<v Speaker 1>prevented the chain from getting going. At the time and

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<v Speaker 1>four centuries after the plague subsided, the survival of Parisians

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<v Speaker 1>was attributed to an airing out of goods blankets, bedsheets,

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<v Speaker 1>clothes that had been quarantined. At the time. It was

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<v Speaker 1>mistakenly believed that the illness traveled by air, when it

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<v Speaker 1>was really the rats and fleas traveling with the quarantined

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<v Speaker 1>goods that were at the root of the plague. If

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<v Speaker 1>not for Parisians love of lemonade, many more may have

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<v Speaker 1>met a tragic end. Today's episode was written by Laurie L.

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<v Speaker 1>Dove and produced by Tristan McNeil. For more on this

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<v Speaker 1>and lots of other lemony fresh topics, visit our home planet,

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<v Speaker 1>how stuff dot com