Book excerpt: This is a collection of recipes from the time of Benjamin Franklin, complemented by anecdotes about his extraordinary life in Boston and Philadelphia, London and Paris. Each chapter is set at a location where Franklin lived or was a visitor, and the menus reflect the food eaten at that time. The recipes are from several sources, including some by the great statesman himself. Among the period recipes and anecdotes, the reader will encounter some more modern recipes, and excursions into the origins of food and drink, all served with a liberal scattering of Franklin's quotations.