Blackening: What do you know about what you don’t know?
Food Alchemist Reflections #8. COOKING TECHNIQUES: WHAT DON’T YOU KNOW?
In a world that has been built by words and words that have been created by humans, where does nature take the lead? It is time for a change, re-think what has been already established by our words, and create a new paradigm that includes us as part of nature. How? Through Food. Food is our common treasure, the best indicator of our planet’s health. These words represent an out-loud thought from The Food Alchemist Lab that endeavors to take you on a trip around general and specific food topics → proposing solutions, destroying myths, and waking up your interest through impactful recipes. Because your curiosity is our trigger and, once you’ve shot us, nothing will stop us from bringing a better food system, the one that listens to nature’s voice.
1. FIRST THINGS FIRST
Maillard reaction — Man & Fire’s Cupid
In past Food Alchemist Reflections, I’ve touched on the relationship between Man and Fire. The unavoidable love story between our first technique discovery and cooking, and the main reason behind this, the Cupid, is the Maillard reaction.
Discovered by Louis-Camille Maillard at the beginning of the 20th century, it brought to light many of the secrets behind this complex non-enzymatic glycation of proteins. A network of reactions (Fig. 1) that is still under study and brings out a rainbow of flavors, aromas, and colors depending on temperature, time, moisture, and, of course, the substrate.
Figure 1: Maillard reaction depiction from Mondaca-Navarro, B. et al., 2019.
Maillard was the first to study this phenomenon on meat cooking, specifically focused on the browning or even blackening process that you’ve surely seen. It was the aroma, color, and texture change that Maillard aimed to explain, from a molecular point of view, getting deep into the visual process. Curiously, the love between Man and Fire continues to influence more discoveries along history, and once again there is meat in the middle. In a funny way, we can say that man realized the utility of fire once a piece of meat fell upon it.
From my point of view, the true aim of Maillard was to explain what and why cooking, since its origin, makes food delicious. What turned that piece of meat that delicious, with that brown and shiny crust that pushed the evolution of hominids to the point that it influenced the structure of our teeth to what we have today? For me, it is clear that when we speak about food there are always emotions. Even when trying to explain it from a “scientific” point of view, and I think Maillard felt the same, and that is why he went directly to the meat.
I’m saying all this because it has recently been discovered that the Maillard reaction also happens in many other raw food materials rather than just meat, and even in our own body (Lloyd R. et al., 2001; Pageon H. et al., 2010) and at lower temperatures than what Maillard postulated. In the end, it is all about the molecular dance between proteins, their amino acids, and glucose, creating the glycation of the same proteins. This fact brings out many other compounds that build the addictive organoleptic profile from bread and meat crust, black beer, chocolate, coffee, and many more. So… now do you understand why I called the Maillard reaction the Cupid of Man & Fire?
And now, let’s get back to chemistry
For this, I would like to mention my friend and chemist Nabila Rodriguez, who wrote this publication which reflects on this particular reaction, how it affects us, and why we love it when it’s applied to the food we eat. As detailed in the publication, the Maillard reaction happens in three different steps:
- It begins between the reducing sugar (glucose; aldose) and the amino group of the protein, forming a compound called Schiff’s base.
- The structure of this compound is rearranged into a more stable form called Amadori (or Heyns product in the case of ketosis) through a 1,2-enaminol. The Amadori product can then undergo enolization to 1,2-enaminol or 2,3-enaminol and form deoxyinosine (α-dicarbonyl compounds), which react rapidly with additional nucleophiles such as amines, guanidines, and thiols, to form Strecker aldehydes.
- The last stage of the reaction is the formation of the molecule responsible for the brown color that foods acquire after the non-enzymatic reaction. They are nitrogenous polymers and brown copolymers, known as melanoidins (Fig. 1)
To make it easier, but no less complex, this is a chaotic reaction (remember that chaos is life, check this medium post) that basically “ends” in the melanoidins responsible for the brown color. However, there are many other secondary compounds coming from this network of reactions that are also responsible for the aromas (nutty, earthy, chocolate-like, bread-like…) and flavors (sweet, roasted, sulfur, caramel-like, licorice…) that food acquire after this phenomenon. Now I guess that we, understanding this process, can open a new set of flavors ready to continue enriching our food identity.
2. BLACKENING OR BLACKENED STUFF
Thus far, we’ve discussed humans and fire, the relationship between them, and how the Maillard reaction made it even more passionate and intense, pure love. We’ve also spoken about the chemistry behind the process and the emotions behind that chemistry.
This amazing phenomenon happens in our body, in avocados (Nabila, R., 2020), we even apply it to garlic (black garlic), and somehow we acknowledge it, affirming that the Maillard reaction is a fact present in these examples. Nevertheless the question that we ask ourselves in the Food Alchemist Lab is: In how many other common food products is this reaction happening without being acknowledged?
Somehow, blackened food also brings to mind dates, wine, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce… and from here the second question is: if we use many known Maillard reaction food products to describe these products, could it be that perhaps the Maillard reaction is going on in these too?
We use descriptors like chocolate, coffee, toasted bread, licorice, nutty, earthy… to describe wine, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, and so again, the reason behind this might be due to the fact that wine, balsamic, vinegar, etc, are also influenced by this marvelous reaction, enriching its final organoleptic profile and reminding us of more familiar flavors and aromas.
During the last four years, we’ve been reflecting on this, trying, experimenting, and creating some less appetizing items. “Luckily” most of the results were delicious, affirming our initial hypothesis and opening a new spectrum of palatable emotions.
By applying different low temperatures, between 55ºC and 71ºC, we’ve learned how to get the perfect blackened fruit, vegetables, mixed sauces, nuts, bread, and even drinks (Fig. 2). They all share most of the descriptors that we’ve recently discussed that somehow label this family of blackened products. But at the same time, each of the final products keeps its special profile, more fruity, more sour, more rounded and flat, or more sharp and aggressive. Sometimes, they remind us of cola drinks, dates, vanilla, cinnamon… or once again, are these cola drinks, vanilla, and cinnamon suffering the same Maillard reaction along their life cycles and production? If you discover something, please let me know.
Fig 2: Some of the blackened food products developed at the Food Alchemist Lab, Future Food Institute, Bologna. 1. black cauliflower, 2. black pineapple (the center becomes tender and easier to chew), 3. black apple, 4. black carrot, 5. black fennel (tastes like pure anise-licorice), 6. black chestnuts (tastes like chocolate), 7. black celery (tastes like pure licorice), 8. black pear.
In conclusion, a new dark world yet to be enjoyed, dark but probably full of bright pleasure for our palates. Remember, black is the new black.
3. RECIPE IN A NUTSHELL
Black in the rainbow
As the title of this recipe suggests, there is also black in the rainbow. Actually, did you know that by mixing all colors you get black? This is somehow a demonstration of what blackened food represents, a hidden rainbow of emotions.
Here we’ve used some of the examples in Figure 2 to recreate black & white dishes, Yin and Yang philosophy. Today our colleague Paco is literally inking with black a rainbow salad, looking for date and chocolate flavors, and pairing it with fresh and herbal touches. Do not miss it and click on the video:
4. REFERENCES
Online:
- Rodríguez N., 2020https://www.masscience.com/2020/11/03/a-que-se-debe-el-pardeamiento-de-los-alimentos-cuando-los-sometemos-a-altas-temperaturas-reaccion-de-maillard/
Papers:
- Lloyd, R. V., Fong, A. J., & Sayre, R. M. (2001). In vivo formation of Maillard reaction free radicals in mouse skin. Journal of investigative dermatology, 117(3), 740–742.
- Pageon H. Reaction of glycation and human skin: the effects on the skin and its components, reconstructed skin as a model. Pathol Biol (Paris). 2010 Jun;58(3):226–31. doi: 10.1016/j.patbio.2009.09.009. Epub 2009 Nov 5. PMID: 19896301.
- Mondaca-Navarro, B. A., Ramírez, R. R., Lerma, A. G. V., Villa, L. A. Á., & Pardo, G. D. (2019). Glycation of Animal Proteins Via Maillard Reaction and Their Bioactivity. In Food Processing. IntechOpen.
