You are what you eat.

IRONICALLY, IT BEGAN WITH HEARTBURN. That is, Norah Ephron's book by that name. Jennifer Cognard-Black, an English professor at St. Mary's College (Md.), saw that one of the characters described a recipe for lima beans and pears. "What better device to create a full, complex character than to have me cook and consume this dish, 're-embodying' the character in my own flesh and blood," she says. Cognard-Black found other "recipe novels" and created a course on cooking in literature called "Books That Cook."

Reading assignments include The Age of Innocence, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Chocolat, and students prepare the recipes in the books. "The most interesting dish prepared was chabella wedding cake, which requires 102 eggs and tears--although the student made a fourth of the recipe, and I'm not sure she added actual tears," she says. "It comes from Like Water for Chocolate."