Graham crackers, chocolate, a toasted marshmallow.  What more can be said about a s'more?

PLENTY!!  If you're asking reginal Mitchell, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University.  His specialty is combustion sciences, so he knows a good deal about marshmallow is actually six-step process:

    1.  Swelling.  As a marshmallow heats, the moisture in it expands causing the marshmallow to swell.
    2.  Escape.  As the moisture expands, it  blows tiny holes through the marshmallow and escapes as steam.
    3. Sugar Rush.  Depleted of moisture, the marshmallow is now a sucrose char.  Oxygen in the air rushes to its surface- it's ready to burn.
   4.  Flame on. At the surface, carbon reacts with the oxygen, producing a blue flame. This is called burning in the diffusion limited mode.
    5. Oxidation.  Simultaneously, carbon atoms grab oxygen atoms, producing carbon monoxide, then carbon dioxide.

This creates soot, evidence in incomplete combustion.

written by Ben Marks