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Alright then, but how do we know the humoral complexion of every single foodstuff? Well, there are some general rules you can follow. First ot of all, all animals and plants take on the characteristics of the environment they live in. Birds, for instance, fly in the air, so they are ''hot'' and ''moist'' (wild birds more so, poultry less). Fish are ''moist'' and ''cold'', just like the water they live in. Pigs, which wallow in mud, have a similar complexion, but to a lesser degree. Other four-legged animals, which graze in the open sunlight, such as cows and sheep, are ''hot'' and ''dry''. Vegetables grow in the dirt, which makes them ''cold'' and ''dry'' – unless they evidently contain a lot of water, like cucumbers do, in which case they are ''cold'' and ''moist''. Just like in humans, there are also differences between individual specimens within a single species; young animals are generaly generally ''moister'', becoming ''drier'' as they age. Males are less ''moist'' than females, although their ''dryness'' may be mitigated through castration. Wild game is also ''drier'' than its domesticated counterparts, so while pork is ''moist'', a wild boar is going to by rather ''dry''.

If you wish to neutralize the humoral properties of one or more of your ingredients, then a rather obvious method is to mix them with ingredients that have opposite complexions. For example, fat is rich in ''water'', so you can temper the ''dryness'' and ''hotness'' of red meat by larding. Sugar (''moist'' and ''warm'') is commonly added to most ''cold'' dishes, even if these aren't really desserts in the 21st-century sense. The natural ''moistness'' of fish is often counterbalanced by sprinkling it with vinegar or lime juice. This general neutralization method is even more effective, if you can break down the ingredients into tiny bits and mix them all thouroughlythoroughly. You can, for instance, mix ''cold'' vinegar with ''hot'' mustard seeds, but it's better to first grind the seeds down to a paste – which, incidentally, is how you make [[Ketchup_vs_Mustard#Mustard, “an Uncommon Condiment”|mustard]]. This is why mortar, pestles, graters and sieves are among the most important kitchen utensils of an Early Modern kitchen.

The vast majority of spices and herbs (especially dried) is ''hot'' and ''dry'', whick which makes them perfect for tempering the phlegmatic nature of some meats, like pork. Sprinkling, though, is not as effective as sticking, hence the great popularity of thick, spicy sauces. Even better is to mix spices with aspic (which, in itself, is ''cold'' and ''dry'') and pour this mixture onto meat, creating a galantine, one of the favourite dishes of medieval Europe. It's also important to give the various ingredients enough time for their elements to neutralize each other. In some extreme cases, you have to start the process of combining the ingredients while one of them is still alive. Hence recipes which instruct you to kill lampreys by drowning them in wine, bury live eels in salt or force-feed a well-fattened capon with vinegar.

In the meantime, another former Pythagorean, who was born here, in Croton, and who goes by the name '''Alcmeon''', is doing natural philosophy with a medical bent. Dissecting human corpses is forbidden for religious reasons, but his studies on animal eyes and brains, have led him to the conclusion that it's the brain, rather than the heart, that is the seat of mind and emotions. Similarly to the Pythagoreans, Alcmeon views the world as a constant struggle of opposites. This includes the human body, where ''warmth'' competes against ''coldness'', ''moistness'' against ''dryness'', and so forth. A balance between them all is what keep you in good health, while the predominance of any one quality leads to illness.

'''Hippocrates of Kos''', born about half a century after Alcmeon, will eventually combine the latter's theory with Empedocles's by assigning one humour (including the imaginary black bile) to each of the four elements in order to explain the struggles of ''hot'' vs ''cold'' and ''moist'' vs ''dry''. He will be also known for introducing the general rule that the physician's duty is to make the patient feel better or at least not worse; and for contributing so much to medical theory that it becomes a standalone stand-alone scholarly discipline. And all this without ever peeking inside a human body. This opportunity will only be available in the following century (4th BCE) to doctors working in Alexandria, such as '''Herophilus of Chalcedon''' and '''Erasistratus of Ceos'''. This they will owe to the first Greek rulers of Egypt, of the house of Ptolemy, who, for the benefit of science, will allow dissections of human corpses to take place on the premises of the Alexandrian temple of the muses (known as a "museum", but really more like a university).

Like much of the achievements of the Greco-Roman civilisation, Galenic medicine will be largely forgotten after the fall of the western part of the Roman Empire, but will survive in its Byzantine part, from where it will be gleaned by the Arabs and from them, by the Persians. A man who will make the greatest contributions to further develop the theory will live in 11th-century Uzbekistan under the name Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abdillah ibn al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Sina (or '''Avicenna''' for short). In the following century, the medical knowledge preserved and expanded by the Muslims, will filter back into western Europe thanks to, among others, '''Constantine the African''', who will bring it from Tunesia Tunisia to Salerno, Italy. It's in Salerno where Europe's first medical school will be located and where Greek medical texts will be translated from Arabic and Hebrew, the chief languages of medicine. This is how Galen, along with "his" humoral theory, will be rediscovered in Europe and popularised in courtly circles by such courts physicians as '''Michele Savonarola''' (his better-known grandson, Girolamo, will study medicine too, but then he's going to quit the studies and get busy with religion and politics). Finally, in the 1470s, Bartolomeo Sacchi (better known as '''Platina''') will publish the first ever printed cookbook, ''De honesta voluptate et valetudine'' (''Of Honest Pleasure and Good Health''), which will introduce wider European populace with recipes marrying the pleasure of eating and humoral medicine.

Actually, let's start with that last criterion: how can dietetics help maintain the current (God-given) social order? How do you make sure that peasants and town folk don't even dream of eating the same food that the nobility does? One way, which has been practised for a long time, is to simply forbid them to eat above their station by enacting sumptuary laws. But it's not a very effective one; tell a man this or that dish to elite for him to eat and he will make a point of eating it only to show that he does belong to the elite. But what if you make him believe that such food unhealthy for him? This is where the dietitians come in. All they've had to do is to demonstrate that the humoral constitution of those who engage in physical labour, in close contact with earth and sun, is completely different than in those born not to work. And if so, then, absolutely logically, whatever is healthy for the latter is deleterious to the former and vice versa. Farmers, porters, soldiers and sailors should never consume fresh white bread, poultry or fruits, as these foodstuffs, while perfectly good for the high-born, would only serve to plaster their stomachs. And, conversely, the kind of food that befits working people, such as stale rye bread, gruel, cheese, salted herringeherring, legumes and root vegetables, would be completely undigestible indigestible for the higher tiers of the society.

| Garlic, as Galen writes {{...}}, is hot and dry in the fourth degree {{...}} Garlic is irritating and burning; it hurts, dries and bloats the stomach, it induces thirtsthirst, makes the head spin and clouds the eyes, therefore wise men do well to be wary of it. {{...}} Garlic is greatly beneficial {{...}} to those who travel to foreign lands and overseas, especially where there are venomous reptiles and noxious, foul-smelling waters. Likewise, it is good against the plague, but only to gross people (peasantry), who are accustomed to garlic, {{...}} because it amplifies their innate heat and helps burn all excess matter; but it in a luxurious man it does much harm.