Putting on the heat

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A little char

If you remember the reference to that tongue and flavor concept earlier, then you may also remember that sweet is pretty much as important as salt in the tactical perspective of taste.  We can crave sweet about as equally as we crave salt; and yes, we can likewise build up a tolerance to that flavor as well, especially if it is abused.  I didn’t say I don’t abuse, but I won’t point fingers.

Heat not only ‘cooks’ our food by rendering cell walls digestible, it removes some difficult elements found in some foods, while also promoting positive elements.  And wonderfully more, heat also has the potential for raising flavor quality.

If you wander through the internet or your encyclopedia, you’ll find when looking up a scientific term call Maillard Reaction, a description recalling proteins, enzymes, carbonyl and nucleophyllic groups (are you still here?) in the cooking process, you’ll see that carbonization reacting with amino acids in meats and some foods is the process described as the Maillard Reaction which raises the ‘flavor bar’ considerably. 

Like a hundred-fold! 

                                         

Now are you listening?

Caramelization is the reduction of natural or added sugars in foods to the point of an oxidized, sometimes carbonized, more complex flavor.  The encyclopedia has a lot of scientific words to give you there as well, but most folks are at least acquainted with caramelization and how it tastes, chews and smells.  

Caramelization and the Maillard reaction are NOT the same thing.  As I stated, the Maillard reaction deals with proteins and enzymes reacting to carbonization – while caramelization is sugars (natural and processed) reacting to carbonization.  The two effects are based with heat application bringing complexity, but then the reactions to the carbonization differs in structure and chemical process. 

Both of these ‘scientific’ flavor alterations are a huge contribution to foods, the natural sugars are more easily processed in our digestion than are the added processed sugars, and the flavor is, well, who doesn’t like a complex sweet?

I don’t think I even need to say what our society would be without chocolate or coffee.  But the chocolates and coffees of the world as we know them are completely dependent on the roasting stage of production -- that ‘bit of char’.  Those hundred-fold flavor complexities found in both chocolate and coffee could not happen without this Maillard effect. 

Or the savory, rich crust on steaks or turkey skin, or the yeasty crunch of fresh baked bread, or the hypnotically resonant sweet aroma, taste and texture of roasted corn and vegetables.  Thank you caramelization!

To caramelize vegetables and fruits, or to bring the Maillard effect and caramelization to meats, fowls, and fishes is, to me, a necessity. I’ve had boiled meats and vegetables – they taste ok, depending on other factors like spicing, texture and aromas – so believe me, without the chew and complex sweet found with caramelization, the difference is approaching legendary.  The act of using controlled high heat, or extended low heat to our advantage is a lesson to learn. 

Trust me.