The Reverend Sylvester (1794 - 1851) must have been a dreadful killjoy in person. But, then, he would have regarded that as a good thing.
He advocated abstinence from alcohol, tea, coffee, meat, milk, white flour and its baked goods, spices and any strong flavors, excitement of any kind, sex, and ‘impure thoughts’ in general. His regimen was supposed to be both healthy and 'character-building'.
He attracted a fairly large following including John Harvey and Will Keith Kellogg – yes, those Kelloggs - and the dean of Oberlin College, (who prescribed Graham's strict, bland, anti-lust-and-impure-thoughts vegetarian diet for students and staff, even firing a professor who insisted on bringing pepper from home), but also considerable ridicule. Butchers and professional bakers in Boston even tried to keep him from speaking there. I agree, he would surely be utterly appalled by just the concept of S’mores.
I regularly make a riff on KAF's Vermont Honey Wheat Bread and ironically call it Graham Bread; it has cinnamon, and Graham strongly disapproved of all spices, cinnamon in particular. So these crackers - and, indeed modern commercial Graham crackers, which are too sweet - wouldn't meet his standards, either.
March 28, 2015 at 3:35pm
In reply to Ah, good old Sylvester Graham. He would probably flip his wig i… by Kalisa (not verified)