Maillard Reaction

Feeling a little sick, I guess this is something I’ve been fending off while I was busy with the ‘Big Taste’. I had a nap today, now I’m up at 1:22am reading about random things — cool things, chain reaction. Let’s start this with a dream, you might want to play this (it has nothing to do with any of this, but it’s a great song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr1mFb2jv98

I was at table 103 in the Q dining room. Nicole — can’t recall her last name (she got married at Q in 2014) was at seat 3, the other 3 seats were empty, her husband was likely in the bathroom. Shane was setting me up for a coffee demo on their table while I was grinding a coffee for someone else using the hand mill. When it was time for me to approach the table, I walked up with a bunch of confidence only to find the water was lukewarm, and the coffee inside the Chem-Ex pot was that ‘Bedouin’ bullshit left over from a wedding we did recently (not even coffee, some spiced/roasted barley drink)

I recall my frustration now that I’m awake, but I don’t think I let it show in the dream. While I was pouring the lukewarm water over the grounds and discovering all of this I was having a conversation with Nicole about coffee producing regions. She asked if I’ve tried coffees from several places, all of which I’ve never heard of before. I remember it being awkward that I couldn’t carry the conversation and frustrated at the fact that I would very soon have to redo the whole process because I was set up to fail by someone else.

I woke up wondering if someone would ever try and do that to me? Not set me up to fail, but to ask me questions about places that don’t exist to see if I would try and bullshit along with it. Coffee from Gambagoodbad? Yeah, that stuff is great, I have it all the time.

Anyway when I woke up I had the sudden urge to read Modernist Cuisine, and research Maillard Reactions — I hopped on Wikipedia on my phone and started reading a bit. It got too interesting to read in bed, so I got up and suddenly this blog post came to be.

The Maillard reaction (/maɪˈjɑːr/ my-YAR is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor.

The reaction is a form of non-enzymatic browning which typically proceeds rapidly from around 140 to 165 °C (280 to 330 °F). At higher temperatures, caramelization and subsequently pyrolysis become more pronounced.

The reactive carbonyl group of the sugar reacts with the nucleophilicamino group of the amino acid, and forms a complex mixture of poorly characterized molecules responsible for a range of odors and flavors. This process is accelerated in an alkaline environment (e.g., lye applied to darken pretzels; see Lye roll), as the amino groups (RNH₃⁺) are deprotonated and, hence, have an increased nucleophilicity. The type of the amino acid determines the resulting flavor. This reaction is the basis for many of the flavoring industry’s recipes. At high temperatures, a potential carcinogen called acrylamide can be formed.^[3]

In the process, hundreds of different flavor compounds are created. These compounds, in turn, break down to form yet more new flavor compounds, and so on. Each type of food has a very distinctive set of flavor compounds that are formed during the Maillard reaction. It is these same compounds that flavor scientists have used over the years to make artificial flavors.

In regards to tea, Japanese compared to the other countries have a totally different flavor set — I’d wager the Maillard reaction has something to do with that. Chinese tea is pan fried, Japanese is steamed. Can a Maillard reaction occur with steam? Things can’t be browned with steam so probably not. I googled if the Maillard reaction can occur with steam, the very first result was Modernist Cuisine.

What would happen with something like Matcha or Gyokuro if the Maillard reaction occurs? As far as I understand, they have the most amino acid Theanine in the highest quantity.

Alkaline environments help speed along the process of Maillard reactions, but what about when the reaction has stopped? Does it allow for more harmony in the flavor? Is it not a factor? If I was to brew a tea that has undergone this process (ie: baked oolong, houjicha, etc) with water which has more alkalinity would it have a positive or negative result?

The Maillard reaction is responsible for many colors and flavors in foods:

• The browning of various meats like steak, when seared and grilled
• The browning and umami taste in fried onions
• Coffee roasting
• The darkened crust of baked goods like pretzels, bagels, and toast
• The golden-brown color of French fries and other crisps
• Malted barley, found in malt whiskey or beer
• Dried or condensed milk
• Dulce de leche
• Black garlic
• Chocolate
• Lightly roasted peanuts

6-Acetyl-2,3,4,5-tetrahydropyridine is responsible for the biscuit or cracker-like flavor present in baked goods like bread, popcorn, and tortilla products. The structurally related compound 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline has a similar smell, and occurs also naturally without heating and gives varieties of cooked rice and the herb pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius) their typical smells. Both compounds have odor thresholds below 0.06 ng/l.

Pandan leafs. I will get some of those. There are a lot of pairing ideas in here. Ok back to dreaming!

ahahahahaha