The Mystery of the Maillard Reaction

Originally published in medium-toasted newspapers on September 10, 2009

Ever heard of the “Maillard Reaction?” Sure, it sounds like it could be the title of a thriller topping the New York Times Bestseller List, but it’s not. It’s a reaction studied by Louis Camille Maillard a French physician and chemist in the early 1900s. Now that you know what the guy did for a living you might hink that his reaction is something you don’t want to hear when you’re visiting with your doctor. “We have the results of your tests back and it appears that the stiffness in your joints is due to the Maillard Reaction.

Here’s one more piece of information. The Maillard Reaction is a chemical reaction between amino acids and sugars. If that doesn’t help maybe some context will. You may have observed this phenomenon this morning before you even left the house. One of the places it occurs is in your toaster when bread is transformed into toast. What happens is that when heated, carbon molecules in sugar combine with the amino acids in protein and browning is the result. This is the Maillard Reaction.

Toast is merely the warm-up act when it comes to all things Maillard. It is in meats where the process is most deliciously showcased. Ever wonder why we don’t boil a steak? It’s because much of what we crave in meats is the tasty by-products of the Maillard Reaction – the brown crust that forms when you place a steak on a hot grill or the crispy golden skin on a Thanksgiving bird. You have to have high heat (300 to 500 degrees) for it to occur. So boiling that steak won’t do the trick because the boiling point of water is 212 degrees. To optimize the reaction, the heat applied needs to be dry. That is why we often brown meat, like a pot roast, before adding a liquid for braising.

It’s hard to describe the flavor that results from browning, but is obvious when it is missing. For instance, one of my fast-food weaknesses is a sausage biscuit. I don’t want egg on it or cheese, just the sausage patty and the biscuit. Not all breakfast sandwiches are created equal. My favorite version comes from McDonalds. Drive down the street or across town to one of the other chains that serves the same menu item and their versions just don’t match up. A clue as to why is revealed when you remove the top half of the biscuit. The McDonald’s sausage patty is always nicely browned. They’ve figured out how to consistently take advantage of the Maillard Reaction. The patties from the other guys are usually an unappetizing grey, with no browning at all.

For the home cook, the secret to being the master of the Maillard domain is to use high dry heat to achieve that brown crust. The potential problem becomes how to not let that brownness cross over the dark side before the interior is cooked. My method is to use two different kinds of heat. On the grill, for instance, I’ll have an area of the grill with more coals than another. I’ll get that grill up to 400 degrees on the hot side and sear a steak and then move it to the cooler side to finish cooking.

My preferred indoor method for cooking a steak is to use both the stovetop and the oven. I’ll use an oven-proof skillet, like cast iron. Start the steak in a hot skillet, browning it on both sides and then moving the skillet to the oven to finish cooking. You can the violent heat of the stovetop for the Maillard Reaction then the more gentle heat of the oven to finish it off.

Fortunately, you don’t need a degree in chemistry to do much cooking but knowing a little bit about a few principals like the Maillard Reaction might come in handy in both the kitchen and maybe as small talk at a cocktail party.

Comments

[Neal]

One of the most interesting profiles or signatures of the Maillard Reaction is that the result is almost always of the umami variety. To really confuse the issue, there are very few (true) Japanese cooking techniques that are meant to accelerate or "feature" the MR. What all that means is that the world of Japanese food and its longstanding belief in umami was never really validated by western cooks until the works of Herve This and progressive cooking movement.

BTW. There are many chefs who are successfully achieving Maillard Reactions at very low 44-50 degrees C.

[Scott]

Neal, you make me feel food-dumb!

[Neal]

Ha! Your not man! Its a very interesting topic to a lot of food geeks (like me). I just think its cool that we now know how to classify what we have liked since the birth of fire. I digress.