The Baker of Eeklo

From the Middles Ages, popular legend perpetuated the belief that the elderly and weary could be rejuvenated by drinking an elusive elixir of life or by bathing in the Fountain of Youth (a subject popular for painters like Lucas Cranach the Elder). Similarly, re-baking in an oven became a popular trope for potential rejuvenation. According to local folklore, the eponymous baker of Eeklo, a town in East Flanders, would cut off the heads of his patients, replacing them with a green cabbage to stem the bleeding. The heads would be kneaded and reshaped with ointments and then baked in the oven before being placed back on the body, young and refreshed. Cabbages had long associations with medical practices but also, according vernacular colloquialisms, carried connotations of madness and stupidity. Warnings persisted too in the length of time the heads should be baked: too long in the oven and the person would become hot-headed, too short a time and they would be foolish and ‘half-baked’.