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Heat affects the speed of the Maillard reaction, unlike a pyrolitic reaction (like caramelization) which can only happen above a certain temperature. (Sucrose and glucose both start to caramelize at 160C/320F, for example, while fructose will caramelize at 110C/230F.)
The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between an amino acid (eg, a protein) and a reducing sugar. All monosaccharides (like glucose and fructose) are reducing sugars, some disaccharides like sucrose and some polysaccharides are also reducing sugars.
As noted, it can occur at lower temperatures, but it will happen much faster in meat at temperatures above about 140C/285F. At even higher temperatures, pyrolitic reactions like caramelization are likely to overwhelm the effects of the Maillard reaction.
A low pH (ie, an acid) can inhibit the Maillard reaction, as can the presence of water.
The browning of a bread crust is a combination of the Maillard reaction and other reactions, especially caramelization.
Caramelization is another fascinating process, one that has not been heavily studied. Researchers have identified over a thousand compounds that can form when sugar (sucrose) is caramelized.
I've got some but haven't ever used it. I'm told the odor dissipates 'quickly', and you're only supposed to use it in things that aren't very thick, like flatbreads and cookies, not muffins, breads or cakes.
If it isn't well-sealed, it'll evaporate out of the bottle over time.
That wasn't Nina and that person hasn't posted since then, either. But I suspect we've got several people following the quizzes who haven't signed up to post.
I often have soup in the freezer for a year or two, but this one was way at the back. I've got some minestrone from 2-3 years ago that I should get out, too, though that'll be just for me, as my wife didn't like it much, too many veggies she didn't like the taste of in it.
Tonight we had bottom round, slow roasted, with some from-scratch mashed potatoes and gravy.
I got 8 pounds of triticale berries from the UNL wheat breeder this week. I'm working on cleaning it and probably won't start doing any testing with it until next week.
I'll start a separate thread for that, which will have some pictures of what the grain looks like (and compare it with wheat and rye) before and after grinding.
I don't think so, the system says she registered but has never logged on to post. She may be reading without logging in, there's no way to track that. I did get a followup email noting their account had been hacked.
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This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by
Mike Nolan.
I went out and bought a cheap Sharper Image mandoline just to get the guard. I actually like that guard more than the one that goes with my much more expensive Matfer Bourgeat mandoline. The Matfer is kind of complicated to set up but works well for large volume slicing. But in some ways, the old Vegematic from the early 60's was hard to beat.
I'm pretty careful around mandolines, the only one I ever cut myself on was a Progressive one that had three separate blades that would snap in, but they wouldn't stay put and it would fall apart like a house of cards. I threw that one away. (I've been satisfied with most of the Progressive tools I have, I've got a potato slicer that works very well.)
I always wince when I watch chefs using a mandoline without using the safety guard.
I'm glad to hear the government had some common sense for a change on the nutrition label.
I agree with some of the changes they made, especially to serving sizes. A candy bar that was labeled as 1 1/2 servings wasn't likely to be only 2/3 eaten in a single sitting.
But much of the information is still relatively useless for cooking. A serving of flour is 1/4 cup (around 29 grams) which generally has 3, 4, or 5 grams of protein. You can differentiate between really soft flours, like a cake flour, and really hard ones with that information (which you probably already knew), but that's about all.
Sometimes it seems like more work to go out to eat and hassle with what is safe for my wife to eat on the menu than to just cook something at home.
And so many of the restaurants are really noisy these days, you can't hardly hear the person sitting across from you talking without yelling. And then they play REALLY LOUD MUSIC so you can't hear the conversation at other tables, or anything else.
Also, they jam as many tables as they can in the dining room and the decor doesn't do much to dampen sound, either, no carpet, no tablecloth, no ceiling tiles. And having the kitchen open to the dining room just adds to the noise level.
We had French onion soup again, and there's enough left for another round of it. This is from a batch I made and froze in 2012, it kept very well in the freezer. Since then I've switched to making it with chicken stock instead of beef stock.
Happy Birthday, and thanks to Sara Wirth for reminding us.
I'm not sure why, but this is the second or third post from you that my anti-spam filter has classified as spam after you edited it. I marked it as not spam, let's see if it stays up.
Yeah, that sounds like the run-of-the-mill spice blend that shows up on things like Google.
We're having French Onion Soup tonight, out of the freezer.
Len, you'll have to tell us how that spice is, some Caribbean spices can be pretty hot.
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This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by
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