Chapter 74 – Gluten
Jade had not expected that washing starch and gluten out of dough would attract so much attention. Not only were the nuns curious, but the monks were eager to take a look as well.
“Well, the ‘food science’ you mentioned is quite a new concept to us,” Father Rochester explained as he stood beside Jade on the lawn – essentially an open, unoccupied space – in front of the kitchen. “We have always understood science as something industrial, or medical, and never imagined it could relate to food, something so humble.”
It was after Jade had dismissed her tuition class, and before supper was ready – just before dusk, if she were to describe it. Usually, she would head to the bathroom after class to take a bath – well, not exactly a bath, more like wiping herself down with a damp cloth to remove dust, sweat, and grime, as most people here did. Households here did not have a dedicated room for bathing, as carrying water in buckets before and after a bath was troublesome, and water itself was not particularly abundant in towns and cities. A hot water bath was a luxury only the rich, with their many servants, could afford. This domus was fortunate to have a well; otherwise, they would have to fetch water from the river. Jade did not dare imagine how dirty the water would be, considering everyone essentially threw everything into the river.
The bathroom in the domus had been built based on Jade’s suggestion, for very practical reasons. First, it was easier to bring warm water to a room beside the kitchen than to carry it all the way back to individual rooms. Second, the heat from the kitchen could warm the adjacent bathroom through the chimney, making it more comfortable to wash in colder weather. Third, there was no need to worry about splashing water everywhere, as the bathroom was equipped with proper drainage that joined the kitchen’s. Fourth, if someone was covered in mud – after a long day of farm work, for instance – or needed to handle tasks requiring thorough washing, such as processing large amounts of donated meat, they would have an extra indoor space and would not need to worry about making a mess in the yard.
Gradually, the nuns and the monks developed the habit of going to the bathroom together, saving time by taking turns and helping scrub each other’s back while chatting, much like a small communal bathhouse.
The kitchen and the bathroom stood side by side, so Jade and the clergy were now gathered not only in front of the kitchen door, but also directly before the bathroom door. Jade wasn’t quite sure how she should feel about the situation… just, kinda weird, dealing with food right in front of a bathroom. Would adding a curtain to the bathroom door help? Wait, the toilet isn’t joined with the bathroom, so it’s probably alright…? She wondered, shook off the random thoughts and focused on the present.
“Um, science is everywhere… and I used it when baking biscuits,” Jade turned to Sister Miriam. “Remember? The baking powder?”
Sister Miriam frowned slightly. “It does not seem very science. Even I could make it.”
“Science does not mean something difficult or complicated. It’s a system…” Jade paused. She did not actually remember the full definition of “science”. She had always used the word out of habit, and now that she thought about it, perhaps she had used it incorrectly at times as she simply used the term whenever it felt appropriate. “Um, just remember that science doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes it’s simple things… like how to make soaps! Remember when I taught the students about chemistry, and I showed them the reaction between wood ash and tallow? That’s science too!”
“Well, that’s a nasty kind of science,” Jade heard someone in the crowd murmur, though she couldn’t tell who.
She raised her voice slightly. “Science isn’t always clean or done in a laboratory. There are many kinds of science that happen out in the field, like ocean science, wetland science, animal science, human science… and food science is just one of many branches.”
Many did not fully grasp her explanation, though some appear intrigued.
Jade held up the dough in her hand.
The surface had dried slightly because she had accidentally left it overnight. It had not risen much, thanks to the cold winter slowing the yeast’s activity, but it no longer felt like freshly made dough.
Jade gave both doughs a few kneads after lightly dampening them. Then, under the watchful eyes of the gathered crowd, she placed one of the doughs into a basin and began kneading it beneath the surface of the water.
Her motions alternated between kneading and washing, much like how one would wash a towel. Many observers, especially the nuns who worked in the kitchen, furrowed their brows, worried that this was wasteful. Washing dough in water, in their eyes, seemed no different from a bratty child playing with food, with no regard for how precious it was.
However, as Jade continued and the water gradually turned milky, the once-smooth dough began to grow rough; with each movement of her hands, it seemed to have become even bouncier than before.
“Alright, what’s left in my hand now is mostly gluten, and what’s in the water is starch.” Jade raised her hand to display the yellowish, uneven but still dough-like mass. “Let the water sit for a few hours so it can settle. After that, pour off the water and dry the white slurry at the bottom, and you’ll get the starch, the kind we use for stiffening clothes and also in cooking.”
At her signal, Josh quickly set the milky basin aside and brought over another basin of clean water. She continued washing. The mass in her hand grew even more jagged, porous, and elastic, while the water still turned cloudy, though less so than before.
The crowd gathered around her watched with wide eyes, amazed by the transformation.
“I think three washes are enough. I’ve washed it quite thoroughly.” Jade switched to a smaller bowl of water. This time, the water grew only slightly cloudy, and everyone finally understood the idea that the starch in the dough was mostly washed out.
She placed the elastic mass on a cutting board and kneaded it briefly. Then, using her fingers, she stretched it into a thin sheet – much like how a baker tests dough to see if it is suitable for bread. But the sheet in Jade’s finger clearly didn’t behave like normal bread dough; it was more solid, and far more elastic and springy.
She explained, “See? This is the structure that allows bread to rise and hold its shape… like the column in our houses. It traps the air from dermentation… um, like how there are spaces beneath a roof? And the starch acts like the filling… like furniture. All these together make good bread. Too little gluten, the bread won’t rise or hold its shape. Too little air, it becomes dense instead of fluffy. Too little starch, the bread lacks texture, becomes tough, and doesn’t taste good. Food science is basically the study of how each component in our food works together to benefit us… I think.”
A silence fell over the gathered crowd. Some stroked their chins in thought, some simply stared in amazement, while others were impressed by the breadth of Jade’s knowledge.
Father Rochester smoothed his moustache and commented, “It reminds me of a magic performance I once had the fortune to see some years ago. Such a marvellous demonstration. No wonder there are theories suggesting that what people once believed to be supernatural phenomena may, in fact, be explained through chemistry – it is only that people of earlier times did not realise it was science, rather than power granted by the divine.”
“There are magic shows here?” Jade looked even more surprised by this revelation. “The kind where magicians do card tricks and pull rabbits out of their hats?”
“Yes,” Miss Arrowot replied. “I once saw one on the street – a travelling magician who went from town to town. It was quite astonishing, and he even explained some of the tricks to us! But he was so quick that we still could not catch it, even after he told us how it was done.”
“Wow, wish I could see a magic show one day.” Jade quickly turned her attention back to the gluten in her hand. “Alright. The starch can be set aside, and this gluten – we can fry it, boil it… not sure about baking it, but basically we can eat it for supper.”
“We can eat it?” Sister Geenia held out a bowl as Jade placed the lump of gluten into it. “Why have I never seen it anywhere else? If we can get starch this way, why does no one sell gluten?”
“Um, maybe they use potatoes to extract starch instead of flour?” Jade shrugged.
Her words rippled through the crowd, returning in a wave of murmurs and discussion.
Catching one of the questions, and nodded. “Yes, there are other foods that contain starch. Even some beans have it. All you need to do is mash them, strain the mixture, and let it settle – just like these three basins here. The starch will sink to the bottom as a clear, distinct layer.”
Sister Geenia nodded, no longer wondering what would become of the leftover gluten or potato mush from the production of starch she usually bought at the market. She turned and entered the kitchen, beginning to cut and fry the gluten, just as Jade had suggested.
“Here’s another dough. Who would like to try washing it?” Jade pointed at the remaining dough beside her, and many hands shot up at once. The commotion quickly grew, and Jade decided that she shall step back. “Just discuss it among yourselves, Brothers and Sisters. You can always fetch more flour and make another dough if you want to try. We can use both the gluten and the starch anyway, nothing will go to waste.”
And she noticed Brother Milo immediately turn and head toward the storeroom, no doubt to fetch a sack of flour.
Those eager to explore stayed behind, while those with no interest dispersed – including Father Rochester, who had a mountain of paperwork awaiting his attention. Jade decided to check on Josh’s puff pastry practice pieces in the bakehouse. The last batch of the day was still inside the oven, even though the coals had already died down. The ovens here retained heat for hours, and it would be a shame to waste it. After she and Josh took out the current batch, the temperature would drop too low for pies or bread, but it was still suitable for biscuits or thin slices that could make use of the residual heat. Both master and apprentice quickly inserted the batch of biscuits into the oven to bake overnight, providing extra treats for the domus the next morning.
“Oh, maybe I should remind Sister Geenia that some people might be allergic to gluten…” Jade muttered to herself as she entered the bakehouse’s mudroom to remove her apron. Her voice was low, but clear enough for Josh – who was repeating her steps beside her – to hear.
“Sensei, what’s ‘allergic’?” Josh asked. “Something bad about gluten?”
“Um…” Once again, it was a concept Jade understood well but struggled to define properly. “Like… have you ever seen someone who cannot eat prawns or seafood, or else they break out in rashes? Or someone who cannot be near a certain perfume or flower scent, or else they sneeze nonstop and it’s painful to even stand by and watch them? Um… or diarrhea! Someone eats the same food as everyone else, and everyone is fine, but that one person ends up with diarrhea even though the food itself is perfectly fine?”
Josh furrowed his brows, trying to recall, then shook his head. “I have never heard of such cases, but I think I understand what you mean, Sensei. These are allergies?”
“Yeah, something like that,” Jade wrecked her brain and came up with a rough explanation. “Everyone is born differently. Just like some were born blind or born blonde, some people are born with bodies that don’t agree with certain things or foods. Milk, nuts, gluten, eggs, seafood, lavender, roses… all sorts of things. Their bodies react badly – they might vomit, have diarrhea, develop rashes, swell up, gain weight, and so on. Some reactions are mild, just uncomfortable, but others can be serious, like breathing problems or suffocation if it affects the lungs.”
The nodding Josh paused at a particular point. “Sensei, you said gaining weight could be a sign of allergy?”
“Well, that’s just my understanding, no scientific proof.” Jade recalled something she had seen online in her previous life. “There was a girl who wanted to lose weight. She tried everything – exercise, eating less – but nothing worked. Then one day, a physician suggested she cut out wheat flour from her diet, and it worked like a miracle. She slimmed down after a few months without needing to eat less or do extra exercise. All she did was stop eating bread and eat other things instead. But that might just be a rumour. You just need to have an idea of what an allergy means.”
Josh nodded. He had absorbed a great deal of random knowledge from his Sensei offhand remarks – most of it unrelated to pastry, and much of it doing nothing to improvise his life, but it broadened his understanding of the world.
There was wisdom hidden in every corner of it, waiting to be discovered.
Never in his wildest imagination would he have expected that such scattered bits of knowledge might one day prove useful. And soon.