Benjamin Franklin Papers
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From Benjamin Franklin to Cadet de Vaux, 5 February 1784

To Cadet de Vaux

LS:4 Bibliothèque Municipale, Nantes

Passy, le 5. Fev. 1784.

Malgré tout le desir que J’ai, Monsieur, de faire quelque Chose qui puisse vous etre agreable ainsi qu’a M. Votre Frere,— Il m’est absolument impossible de faire le voyage de Paris dans Ce moment cy; ma Maladie, et la saison rigoureuse, sont des obstacles insurmontables pour moi—

J’ai moi meme fait executer un Poele Cheminée propre a bruler le Charbon de Terre, & telle que M. le Noir a paru desirer que Je fis connoitre dans ce Pays cy.5 Je serai charmé de vous le montrer, quand vos Affaires vous permettrons de venir a Passy: Je ne puis encore en faire un Usage habituel faute de Charbon de Terre.— Si vous pouvez m’en procurer vous me ferez grand Plaisir.—

J’ai recu dans le Tems—La Farine de Bled de Turquie, que vous avez eu la complaisance de me faire venir—et pour laquelle Je vous suis redevable.—6 Je vous envoye par le Porteur un Echantillon de Pain fait en Partie avec cette Farine,—mais Je crois qu’il seroit possible de le faire meilleur: Je vous envoye la Recette pour le faire7—si vous jugez a propos d’en faire faire l’Essaye a l’Ecole de Boulangerie—

J’ai l’honneur d’etre, avec un sincere Attachement, Monsieur votre très humble & très obeissant Serviteur.—

B. Franklin

M. Cadet de Vaux

Notation: Franklin

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

4In WTF’s hand.

5See Lenoir to BF, Dec. 4, and Cadet’s letter immediately above. We have not been able to determine what BF was offering to show Cadet. It is possible that he had brought to France the vase stove made in England in 1771, which he carried back to America and used during the winter of 1775: “Description of a new Stove for burning of Pitcoal …,” in Smyth, Writings, IX, 459–60. If BF did have this stove at Passy, however, it is curious that he had not shown it to Cadet earlier.

6Cadet de Vaux had recently sent BF corn flour (here called “Bled de Turquie”); see his letter of Jan. 14. We suspect that Cadet, who had consulted BF on American breadmaking the previous spring (see XXXIX, 355), had asked him to prepare a sample loaf using corn meal, which was being explored as a superior source of nutrition for people as well as animals. An article in the December, 1783, Jour. de physique claimed that corn was the most nutritious of all grains, described its ease of cultivation, and called on experts in “l’Art de la Boulangerie” to perfect the technique of making bread with corn flour: Jour. de physique XXIII, part II, 447–52. Around this time the Royal Academy of Bordeaux issued a prize question calling for a study of corn and its uses. They awarded the prize on Aug. 24, 1784, to Parmentier, co-director with Cadet de Vaux of the Ecole de Boulangerie, for a study published the following year as Maïs, ou Blé de Turquie … (Bordeaux, 1785). The bread recipes in Parmentier’s book also mixed corn and wheat flours, but would have yielded loaves far lighter than the one BF made.

7Immediately below.

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