Deep Brown. How You Get There Matters
The Maillard Reaction and Caramelization are what give foods a golden brown color, flavorful aromas, and deep satisfying taste. These reactions are just a combination of simple sugars and heat. If there are amino acids and protein present, it’s Maillard; if it’s just sugar is Caramelization. Both reactions are a combination of time, temperature, and moisture, and elicit new and complex flavors and aromas.
Grilled meat. Pan roasted fish. Sweet roasted carrots. French Fries. Tarte Tatin or just Caramel anything.
When I say deep brown, I’m not just talking about the quality of the color, I’m referring to the browning process. Superficially torching the surface of food is not enough to create a meaningful Maillard reaction or caramelization (unless it’s a Creme Brûlée). Restaurants use sous vide machines to produce consistent doneness, and blowtorches like the Searz-All to create quickly occurring Maillard reactions because of the sheer volume they have to produce. These technologies produce consistency and quality, but a skilled home cook shouldn’t be bound by such shortcuts.
The real beauty, flavor, and texture from a perfectly browned food comes from all of the other great cooking conditions and techniques employed. The reactions that everyone are chasing is the expression of a sound process, not a superficial finishing move. It’s alchemy, it’s cooking.
It’s the difference between diligently exercising and eating right for a year, as opposed to 8 minute abs classes and butt implants. The work pays off, you feel better, and EVERBODY can tell.
Let’s look at a few examples in the real world of what I’m talking about:
Giant bone-in Ribeye- I like to heavily season with salt and pepper, grill, and roast over hardwood charcoal and smoke with rosemary and thyme. Flip, char, burn the edges, take off, put back on. Spend time perfecting the crust and sometimes painting marinades for up to 20 minutes. Real exposure to wood, smoke and different heats. During colder months a cast iron pan, aromatics, and butter basting are a great substitute. Its time, care, and attention that makes the difference.
Pommes Anna (Crispy potatoes)- Clarify your butter or you will cheat the process. It’s more important to brown the potatoes than the butter. Butter will brown very quickly even if the potato is still raw. Don’t take the shortcut, clarify the butter, and give your potatoes some more time to develop. Give your main ingredient a chance to transform. It’s the difference between a Michelin starred restaurant dish and hash browns. This type of thinking is why I “Grill In the Cold” (An entry in the Daily Cooking section).
Sweets like Tarte Tatin and Granola- These recipes have some combination of main ingredients, fat, and sugar. Make sure to caramelize, toast, and brown the main components, not only the added sugars. A deeply caramelized apple is so much different than a barely cooked one tossed in a caramel sauce. I have a small granola company Knusprig that’s philosophy is based on this principle. Uncovering hidden flavors inside of ingredients through careful and meticulous toasting and sifting. No cheap additions or sweeteners.
Japanese eggplant. Slow careful browning. One of my favorite pictures