38. Slurping Down Rotten Treacle
One of the more popular plague remedies was treacle – an uncrystallized syrupy byproduct made during the refinement of sugar. In of itself, treacle, while lacking any healing properties, was relatively harmless. However, seeing as how we are talking about a medieval plague cure, it is unsurprising that there was a medieval wacky twist to it.
The Black Death treacle remedy twist was that the syrup had to be rotten. As in it had to be aged at least ten years to be considered effective. Operating on the dubious logic of “if it tastes horrible it must be good“, physicians swore by the healing properties of rotten treacle. The old, stinky, and sticky syrup was believed to not only ward off the plague in the first place, but to also cure those unfortunate enough to have come down with the illness.
