Science of Flavor
Understanding the Chemistry of Cooking can Enhance Your Food's Flavor
Besides being a little grossed out you will notice that there’s not a lot in raw meat from a flavor standpoint. Think about tartar. You don’t just give somebody a pile of raw meat. You give them capers and some mustard and pepper, something to give it some flavor.
— Chris Loss, director of menu research and development, Culinary Institute of America
Raw beef is flavorless.
Chris Loss, director of menu research and development at the Culinary Institute of America, suggests tasting a piece of uncooked hamburger meat.
“Besides being a little grossed out by that, you will notice that there’s not a lot in raw meat from a flavor standpoint,” he said. “Think about tartar. You don’t just give somebody a pile of raw meat. You give them capers and some mustard and pepper, something to give it some flavor.”
It’s the cooking process that creates all of those familiar flavors, textures and aromas. But there is more to cooking than just using heat. When you place a slab of beef into a pan and turn on the burner, you are kick-starting an exquisite and complicated chemical process, Loss said, breaking down and rearranging protein strands and activating amino acids that produce mouthwatering delicacies such as filet mignon.
Maillard Reaction
The chemical process is known as the Maillard reaction, named after 20th century French chemist Louis-Camille Maillard.
When raw meat is subjected to heat greater than 300 degrees Fahrenheit, it breaks down proteins and carbohydrates, releasing amino acids and sugars that combine to create a multitude of savory flavors and brown the outside of the meat.
Cuts of meat such as the legs, where muscles are strongest, are often cooked for longer periods through braising or roasting because it takes longer to break down the protein fibers to make the meat tender and create the desired flavors, Loss said.
Boiled water cannot exceed 212 degrees Fahrenheit, so using this cooking technique will not achieve the desired effect.
“When I make beef stew I take the cubes of meat and sear them in a pan with oil to get them brown,” said Mary Camire, professor of food science and human nutrition at the University of Maine. “If I just tossed them in the water they would cook but they’d be gray and wouldn’t have that cooked beef flavor.”
When Loss is teaching a class he will take a seared piece of meat and a boiled piece and put them in cups so his students can smell but not see them.
“The typical descriptions for the poached product is that it smells like blood or minerally or like an egg,” Loss said. “For the roasted meat they say it smells nutty and earthy and smokey and caramelly, these wonderful descriptions.”
Sometimes, however, you don’t want to develop color and flavor with high heat, which is why people poach a lot of fish, Loss said. “It has a nice quality to it. It has its own flavor and sweetness and you don’t want to take away from that.”
Marinades high in acidity, such as lemon juice and vinegar, can have a similar effect as heat, chemically unraveling protein strands and preparing the meat for browning and flavor reactions, Loss said. Enzymes in papayas and other fruits also can unravel proteins.
To Salt or Not to Salt?
Seasoning can be just as important to the cooking process, though it must be used at times with caution.
Poppy Tooker, author, TV personality and now host of "Louisiana Eats," on WWNO 89.9-FM, is wary of too much salt, especially when dealing with processed pork products such as ham or sausages that come loaded with sodium.
“When I make gumbo it always shocks people that I don’t add salt until the very end of the cooking process when I add the shrimp," Tooker said. "Most people don’t know that when you add raw shrimp to a dish they suck all the salt out. Then you have to resalt. So I don’t salt my gumbo at all until after I’ve added shrimp.”
If people properly use certain culinary techniques like searing, salt may not be necessary, Loss said. Searing causes the water inside meat to evaporate, trapping sodium on the surface.
“If you sear something well and get a good dark color and aroma and get that crust, you’ve created a multisensorial experience just with that piece of meat,” Loss said.
Another complaint about salt is that it draws moisture out of meat, but that is offset by salt's added benefits, said Kristi Crowe, spokeswoman for the Institute of Food Technologists and assistant professor at the University of Alabama.
“Salt does take away moisture, but it also causes you to salivate more in the chewing process, which tenderizes the product,” Crowe said. “So the negative is offset by the positive attributes, which also include the enhancement of flavor.”
- Photo Credit iStock
