The Maillard reaction

When you think about a benefactor of Humanity, you probably think Mother Teresa, Gandhi, MLK, Nelson Mandela or the Dalai Lama. I’ll personally go with Louis Camille Maillard.

Maillard is the early 19th century chemist who brought us the Maillard reaction, which is one of the first things you learn at chef school. The Maillard reaction is the browning reaction responsible for the toast and the crusty baguette, French fries, as well as the irresistible smell and flavor of grilled meat.

Happiness is said to be made of the little pleasures of life. I tend to get mine from good food and I’m sure you do too. I just have to evoke the smell of caramelized onions, barbecue meat being barbecued, or roasted coffee for Louis Camille Maillard to get all your devoted attention. He is he, who in 1912 discovered what happens to proteins and sugars when they chemically bind under high heat. The result is as ubiquitous as it is amazing: magical smells, intense aromas, increased flavor in pretty much everything we cook that turns brown. We owe the reaction and its discoverer the rotisserie chicken and its aroma, browned onions on liver, the dry, crusty edge of pizza, as well as seared scallops. We owe the reaction more trivial things too, like the color of beer, self-tanning products and also the 2004 eBay sale of a decade-old, toasted cheese sandwich bearing the image of the Virgin Mary. It sold for $28000. Sure, pattern-recognition reactions in the buyer’s brain may have something to do with the hefty price. But no Maillard reaction; no holy toast.

The point is that anything with protein is a candidate for the Maillard reaction. Maillard explained the chemical reaction between amino acids, whose chains form proteins, and a reducing sugar or an oxidized lipid. Raw meat has little flavor and relatively no smell. Yet when you sear a steak, the outside layer of the meat becomes brown and flavorful. What happens?
To sear, you heat up a large pan to about 300F to 500F, which are, coincidentally or not, adequate temperatures for quick and impressive “Maillardization”. Then you add the steak in the hot pan for the temperature shock (listen for the characteristic “pssssht”. The outside of the meat (protein) quickly reaches a much higher temperature than the inside, triggering the reaction. Then, amino acids and residual sugars (mainly the glucose naturally present in blood) react, change color and develop aromas.

To make a Maillard reaction you need proteins and you need sugar. Fat helps too as a partner to bind everything together. The reaction brings deep, brown, satisfying color, magical taste and aromas that trigger appetite. No one knows that better than artisan bakers, who are skilled Maillard specialists. Bread has proteins (gluten) and sugars (starch). From their mastery of the reaction will depend the color and smell of fresh bread.

The reaction also happens at lower temperatures, opening a new door to wider horizons. Dry-cured Serrano ham, for instance, never sees heat. It’s only salted for two weeks, rinsed and then hanged to dry for about a year. Yet, a Maillard reaction occurs, slowly, until the ham takes a brown color and develops aromas.
Chefs know the reaction, but so do doctors and scientists, as you can find it in many areas of medicine, such as Alzheimer, cancer and diabetes research and ophthalmology.

By understanding Maillard, modern cooks can better improve the flavor and taste of their preparations.
Not that pre-1912 cooks couldn’t sear meat; they just didn’t know what they were doing, quite literally. You too are a disciple of Maillard the chemist. Every time you use your pan, your oven or your outdoor grill, you trigger a Maillard reaction. Thanks to him, cooking becomes a playful adventure and a rewarding experience. But not always. Burning your eggs in the morning or forgetting croutons in the oven until they turn black are also, though unfortunate, fantastic Maillard reactions.

Despite such a discovery, Maillard died without fame. The applications of his discovery just did not find enough support at the time. Camille Louis was French, but it’s thanks to two American research scientists that the reaction got its rebirth in 1946, after one of their unrelated experiments turned unexpectedly brown.

Now, I invite you to join me in celebrating Louis Camille Maillard. Barbecue party this weekend?