Strawberries are one of the few berries that have much of an aphrodisiac reputation. The early Greeks, as mentioned, had a taboo against the eating of any red foods, including wild strawberries, and this added mystery to the fruit, leading many to believe it possessed great powers. In the Middle Ages, however, pregnant women avoided the berries because they believed their children would be born with ugly red birthmarks if they ate them.
An American favorite is strawberry shortcake the largest of which is baked at the Lebanon, Ohio strawberry festival, where a cake towering twelve feet in the air is cut with a saw each year. But there are far better aphrodisiac dishes made from the fruit. One is fraises 4 la Cussy, the strawberries, cream and champagne dessert invented by Napoleon's chef Louis de Cussy. Another is that offered by the American sexologist Professor McCary, who claimed that strawberries and pear doused in Cointreau and drenched in a fragrant sauce of beaten egg yolk, confectioners sugar, cloves and cinnamon would accrue to the benefit of any mattress maker. Excellent also are wild strawberries, or the French fraises de bois, both of which can be obtained at specialty markets or grown in the home