Ice Cream Maker Basics

Let’s give it up for the Maillard Reaction.

What the heck’s that? Well, it’s the thing responsible for the smokey flavours in your barbeque. The fantastic meaty bits on the bottom of a just-used frying pan (you DO deglaze those into a sauce, right? ) The charring on grilled chicken. Most of the flavour of meat, fried onions, roasted coffee, and of course toasted bread.

Maillard reactions are named for the chemist Louis Camille Maillard, who is pretty much only known for the reaction that he discovered. It happens when a foodstuff is heated high enough that a reaction occurs between its amino acids and the reducing sugars present in the food, triggering a waterfall reaction that amongst other things produces ketosamines which then degrade further into a huge and complex range of organic compounds. Other sugars are also produced at the same time, hence the slightly sweet taste of grilled meat or toast.

The promotion of Maillard reaction is the desired result of “browning” meat before cooking it in a stew or similar (although there is some disagreement as to whether, thanks to the lack of reducing sugars in meat, whether this is indeed a true Maillard reaction or simply something quite similar). Many cookbooks will tell you that you brown the meat in order to “seal” the juices in, which is total rubbish – the sizzling sound of a “sealed” steak cooking is actually the sound of water evaporating, proving that the thing is about as sealed as a wad of cotton wool.

However, the practise is sound even if the principle isn’t. Meat in particular benefits hugely from hitting the Maillard temperature, which is around 155C  (310 F) – either sear it in a hot pan, taking care to press it down, or use a blowtorch on its surface before cooking. Mince is tricky to sear this way, but can be seared by plunging it into very hot oil.

Thank goodness for Maillard and his reaction! If it didn’t exist, all our steak would taste like it had been cooked in an electric kettle. And let’s face it, no-one wants that.