The Maillard Reaction: you love it, even if you don't know it yet

[The Late Night Gourmet]

I'd never heard this term used before, but I'm certainly familiar with it. The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor. For someone that enjoys understanding the science of cooking, this is fascinating stuff:

https://food52.com/blog/14630-what-the-heck-is-the-maillard-reaction-why-should-you-care

 

[Morning Glory]

Although not all browned food is due to the Maillard reaction... I certainly learned something from this link. I will definitely be trying some of the techniques.

I've summarised some of the key points from the article as some members have limited access to parts of the internet:

• In layman's terms, the Maillard reaction, which was discovered in 1912 by Louis-Camille Maillard, is a series of chemical reactions between amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and carbohydrates (the building blocks of sugars) that occurs when food is cooked.

• There are many separate reactions that result in a similar change of colour: caramelisation, for example. The non-enzymatic browning reaction behind the brown top of creme brulee occurs when sugars are oxidised. Unlike the Maillard reaction, it does not involve proteins. However the two reactions frequently occur side by side. caramelised onions, for example, have not exclusively undergone caramelisation; while the sugars in the onions do oxidise, the proteins in the onions are also reacting with simple sugars in the Maillard reaction—both processes are happening at once.

• Then there is charring and burning. At high enough temperatures, molecules are eliminated rather than generated. The food is becoming brown, but at this point, it's combusting as a source of energy, and the flavours are harsher and simpler.

• You can maximise the maillard process by cooking dryer food at higher temperatures. Get meat as dry as possible before adding it to a very hot pan. Leave cut vegetables uncovered in the refrigerator overnight; by drying them out, you're ensuring that they'll brown nicely when you roast them the next day

• The Maillard reaction occurs more quickly in alkaline environments . Adding baking soda raises the pH of the food and will therefore speed up the Maillard reaction. Try adding a little baking powder to onions when caramelising (no more than 1/4 tsp per pound of chopped onions) or rubbing chicken wings with a mixture of salt and baking powder to achieve a crispy skin.

Bullet points are summarised and edited from https://food52.com/blog/14630-what-the-heck-is-the-maillard-reaction-why-should-you-care

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

You can maximise the maillard process by cooking dryer food at higher temperatures. Get meat as dry as possible before adding it to a very hot pan. Leave cut vegetables uncovered in the refrigerator overnight; by drying them out, you're ensuring that they'll brown nicely when you roast them the next day

This point here is the one that surprised me the most: that leaving vegetables uncovered in the refrigerator isn't a mistake or a bad idea, but rather an excellent way to achieve a better result.
Thanks for summarizing the article!

 

[Morning Glory]

Thanks for summarizing the article!

I did it for my own reference as much as to help members. Its quite fascinating. I am going to try the baking powder trick as well as the vegetable trick.

 

[epicuric]

Interesting. I'd never heard of using baking soda for that effect before. Last year I bought a book - "Low and slow, how to cook meat" by Neil Rankin that goes into much detail about maximising the Maillard reaction with meat. A lot of what he writes is counter intuitive, and completely turns conventional thinking on its head when it comes to cooking meat. From memory the sweet spot temperature range is much lower than stated in the above article. I will check it out and report back.

Regarding drying vegetables out in the fridge overnight, that makes perfect sense. When I am doing roast potatoes or in quest of the perfect triple cooked chips I always blast chill them after parboiling and before frying - usually half an hour on a rack in the freezer. I had never though of doing it with other veg though. Might help achieve the crispy roast parsnips that have so far eluded me.

 

[Lynne Guinne]

...The Maillard reaction occurs more quickly in alkaline environments . Adding baking soda raises the pH of the food and will therefore speed up the Maillard reaction. Try adding a little baking powder to onions when caramelising (no more than 1/4 tsp per pound of chopped onions)...

I think those both should be baking soda, right?

I recently learned a trick before cooking shrimp: toss raw shrimp into a salt/soda mixture in the ratio of 1# shrimp, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon soda. Let them sit for no less than 15 minutes, then rinse thoroughly, and pat dry. If I'm going to put them on a grill, either my cast iron grill pan inside or send hubby out to cook them on the gas grill, I'll skewer them, stretch the skewers across a bowl so that the shrimp can air-dry all around, and pop them into the fridge. Out them come again no more than half an hour before cooking so that they come up to room temperature.

If you love the science of cooking, take a look at the Serious Eats website, especially "The Food Lab" section under "Techniques". Warning: it can be a real reading rabbit hole.

 

[Morning Glory]

I think those both should be baking soda, right?

I just abbreviated what the article said... the exact phrasing was:

Kenji recommends rubbing chicken wings or porchetta with a mixture of salt and baking powder (like baking soda, it raises the pH) to achieve the often-elusive crispy skin.

 

[epicuric]

The Maillard reaction at work last night. Rankin states that it occurs between 140-165 deg C. Above that caramelisation starts, breaking down the sugars and inhibiting the Maillard reaction.