What is the Maillard reaction? The answer is apparently very simple, but if we analyze the process as a whole, it becomes very complex to understand the chemical dynamics that intervene during the cooking of food.
So let's get there step by step, over low heat and try to start from the beginning.
He was a very important French doctor and chemist, born in Lorraine in the second half of the XNUMXth century. His studies in chemistry and botany led him to discover physiology, then to formulate the famous reaction between amino acids and sugars at high temperatures. Here is something ignited in our head.
We are in fact talking about cooking, cooking, and that beloved crunchy and dark crust that makes meat and bread products delicious, which attracts us from the windows of ovens and onto restaurant trays. But let's find out what it is.
We think of the smell of grilled meat, the slightly dark crust of wood-fired bread, the crunchiness of fried food, from vegetables to chicken wings, including fish and shellfish. But pizza crust, toast, creme brulee, and stir-fried vegetables are all right, too—all of which are the Maillard reaction.
The Maillard reaction is a chemical process known since the beginning of the twentieth century thanks to the homonymous scientist, in which monosaccharide sugars and amino acids react with each other when brought to high temperatures, forming new molecules. It is precisely these molecules that are the tasty part that we have described above.
Chemically, going into a bit of technical detail, we can say that the Maillard reaction needs two chemical compounds, i.e. carbohydrates (the reducing ones, such as glucose and fructose; for example, fructose, the common sugar table) and proteins.
At this point, however, the presence of these two compounds is not enough, it is necessary to raise the temperature. In fact, the speed of the chemical reaction goes hand in hand with the temperature: it starts at about 120° and increases as the water contained in the food evaporates. But be careful not to exceed 180°.
A very important role is also played by the Ph, i.e. the acid or basic value of the liquid contained in the food: an acid Ph hydrolyses the carbohydrate chains.
Let's take an example. To cook a steak on the grill, the best thing is to dry the meat, wait for the plate to reach temperature, i.e. it is hot, sprinkle the steak with fat, i.e. brush it with oil (fats are excellent heat conductors), and put it to cook. Maillard's reaction takes care of the rest.
Same thing, in operation, with regard to fried and sautéed foods, biscuits, baked goods and many others: sugars and carbohydrates react at high temperatures and form that inviting dark crust…
Why then is the crust that forms with beef, compared to chicken, faster in time and consistent in shape? Simple, because beef contains more sugars than sheep.
We wake you up with a trick to always get the effect of the Maillard reaction: try to marinate the meat.
But there is always a flip side, especially in good things to eat: the Maillard reaction produces potentially carcinogenic substances, especially at very high temperatures, above 200°, and destroys the essential amino acids, which are very important in our diet. In short, a little crust is fine, but be careful not to raise the heat too much: keep the temperature below 140 and 160° and don't overdo the cooking times.
Now let's go into chemistry and try to understand something about this complex world. The Maillard reaction occurs in 3 steps. Let's see them.
In the first phase we have the reaction of the carbonyl carbon of a sugar with an amino group of an amino acid of a protein, therefore the formation of a substance called glycosylamine, which will be transformed into an Amadori or Heynse compound, depending on the type of sugar. Although with this phase the Maillard reaction of some products, for example milk, can be said to have ended, the same is not the case for foods that have the dark crust we were talking about at the beginning, the one, so to speak, that makes us covetous. For this we must therefore move on to the second stage.
During the second phase we record many different reactions, mostly due to the pH and temperature of the food: formation of dicarbonyl compounds, drastic dehydration of the compounds of the first phase, splitting of other compounds that had always formed in the previous phase .
With the passage to the third phase we have the real browning of the food, therefore the formation of the crust. It is in this phase that melanoidins are formed, i.e. those greedy substances with a brown colour. But be careful: at temperatures that are too high, from 180° upwards, melanoidins are not formed, but rather dangerous and noxious substances with a name that is difficult to write and read.
In summary, the Maillard reaction is nothing more than the crust on grilled meat, the crunchiness of fried food, the browning of bread, the fragrance of sautéed vegetables, and it is a chemical reaction favored by various factors, such as: the nature of the product, of course; the acidic or low Ph; the cooking temperature: the reaction takes place at temperatures above 140°, but below 180°.
Be careful not to burn or overcook foods therefore: it will change the taste and wholesomeness. And goodbye Maillard.
