Lindsey Nair

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When they graduate from Washington and Lee University on Thursday, a handful of students will be armed with knowledge that will, in my opinion, come in much handier than, say, how to diagram a sentence or apply the quadratic theory.

They will know how to avoid onion tears. How to make the perfect gravy. And how to whip egg whites like a pro.

These students weren't culinary arts majors, or even hospitality management majors. Their majors range from journalism to accounting, but they have one thing in common: They thought it would be fun to take Marcia France's class on the science of cooking.

"I don't think it could be any more fun," said senior Keri Cloninger. "My parents are making fun of me because I am getting married in June. They're like, 'You're taking cooking and aerobics. Are you getting ready to be a wife?' "

But the female students aren't the only ones who have had fun with this science elective. France, who has been a professor of chemistry at W&L since 1994, said even the guys are into it.

She's into it, too.

"When I teach the organic [chemistry] course, they ask me questions that I usually know the answers to," France said. "With this class, I don't always know the answers."

The fact that she and visiting professor Christine Winschel are learning as they go infuses an unusual energy into the class.

The chemistry of cooking

The six-week spring term was the first time France, 43, taught a full version of the class. Previously, she has taught it as a brief, one-credit filler course aimed at science majors.

But she realizes how much science, particularly chemistry, plays into cooking and baking. Heat transfer and the cellular structure of certain foods are important topics in the class.

And these days, more chefs are experimenting with chemistry in professional kitchens, creating flavorful gels and foams to accentuate dishes.

"The Culinary Institute of America does include food science as part of our core curriculum," said institute spokesman Stephan Hengst, "but it is sprinkled throughout all of our classes."

A few students were surprised to find that the first exam in France's class was all organic chemistry, but she felt it was important that they know some basics before proceeding.

Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Sarah Kim, 21, a junior from Buena Park, Calif., and Gaby Albuja, 19, a sophomore from Quito, Equador, review an assignment with professor Marcia France, who teaches Chemistry 191, 'The Science of Food,' at Washington & Lee University in Lexington.

Related

Food tips from a chemist

• Eat salad or fruit to minimize garlic breath. They provide compounds that react with the sulfur in garlic, which causes the odor.
• Pre-chill an onion in ice water for a half-hour to an hour before cutting to cut down on eye irritation. It slows the enzyme activity that produces the volatile sulfur compounds that attack your nerve endings.
• Don’t substitute Dutch-processed cocoa powder for regular cocoa powder in recipes. Natural cocoa-powder reacts with baking soda, making the product rise. Dutched cocoa does not.
• Opening your oven door will not cause a souffle to collapse. If the souffle does fall, it will rise again after the door is closed and the temperature increases.
• Do not store cheese in plastic wrap. To prolong freshness and prevent sogginess or molding, store it wrapped loosely in wax paper.
• For easier-to-peel eggs, use older eggs, add 12 tsp. baking soda per quart of water when you boil them and cool in the refrigerator before peeling.

Source: Marcia France; Washington and Lee University

"There's a week and a half of boring stuff, then four and a half weeks of fun stuff," she said. "They have to be at the point where I say 'the proteins coagulate' and they know what I am talking about."

The "fun stuff" has included making ice cream with liquid nitrogen. The students have also taken several field trips, including one to The Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, where chef Tucker Yoder slow-cooked eggs in a warm water bath and played with transglutaminase, an edible binding agent, as well as gelatin and agar, which is derived from seaweed.

Another day they traveled to Lexington Valley Vineyard, where owners Janet and Calvin Hale (he is a trained biochemist) gave a technical discussion on winemaking.

Finally, on May 18, the class took what they had learned to the kitchen in Evans Hall, a former cafeteria for the school that is now used for catering and special events. There, they broke into groups of three or four and tackled a variety of assignments.

Hands-on learning

In one lesson, two groups made meringue cookies two different ways; one with real egg whites and one with powdered egg whites. The idea was to see whether the cookies turned out significantly different.

Josh Prell, 22, and a couple of other guys took on the meringue recipe that called for powdered egg whites.

"We're going to free-for-all it," said Prell. "I have no idea what we are doing."

A few minutes later, he piped up: "We put in the sugar before we were supposed to. We'll see if that makes a difference."

Turns out, it did. Adding the sugar before beating the egg whites prevents them from foaming up correctly. So, in a good-natured way, they went back to square one.

Two other groups played with two different chocolate chip cookie recipes to see if one truly turned out puffier cookies than the other. They found that using baking powder instead of soda, adding an egg (a natural leavener) and using cake flour rather than all-purpose flour indeed made the cookies fluffier.

The thin cookie team came out with flatter, crispier treats.

One team whipped up a Middle Eastern recipe for scrambled eggs that calls for adding vinegar, a little bit at a time, as the eggs are cooking.

Supposedly, the vinegar lends a creamier texture to the eggs but not an unpleasant flavor.

Some students said they could still taste the vinegar, but the eggs did indeed have a smoother consistency.

Finally, in the seitan corner, the students experimenting with gluten wore dubious expressions.

Seitan is a vegetarian meat substitute made with whole wheat flour, vegetable stock and various seasonings. It looked like bread dough when the students cut it into chunks and added it to boiling water on the stove.

It ended up reminding most of the class of bread, even after they had sauteed a few pieces in barbecue sauce.

"I think I'll stick to real meat," said Caitlin Corr.

Even if she didn't like it, it isn't every day that a college class gets to line up at a counter and sample all of their homemade treats.

While others may never make meringues or seitan again, 19-year-old sophomore Gaby Albuja sees herself in her own kitchen a lot more next semester.

"I thought most of the sciences remain in theory, and this seemed to be an ideal way to put the science into practice," Albuja said. "It's like a very intense course, but it's worth it."