Showing posts with label Benjamin Franklin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Benjamin Franklin. Show all posts

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Benjamin Franklin on the Art of Eating edited by Gilbert Chinard

I was in Philadelphia for work back in March and on a day off went to an exhibition of some of Charles Darwin's personal papers at the American Philosophical Society. On my way out, I picked this book up on a whim because it sounded interesting and because it was only available directly from the APS.

The first 40 pages were written by Gilbert Chinard, who I guess works
(or worked) for the APS. Some of Franklin's writings about food and a few of his recipes make up the rest of the book. Well...as far a I could tell anyway. At various points it was confusing as to who was doing the writing. I was hoping for commentary and footnotes on each of the recipes, or at least on some of them. I thought I would get some interesting analysis. I didn't. This book was a big let down.