I FINALLY understand the Maillard reaction

You’ve probably heard of the Maillard reaction, but here's how it *actually* works (AND how to hack it).

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆-𝗴𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆:
-Hellwig M, Henle T. (2014) Baking, ageing, diabetes: a short history of the Maillard reaction. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 53(39):10316-29. doi: 10.1002/anie.201308808.
-Liu S, Sun H, Ma G, Zhang T, Wang L, Pei H, Li X, Gao L. (2022) Insights into flavor and key influencing factors of Maillard reaction products: A recent update. Front Nutr. 9:973677. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.973677.
-Martins SFS, Jongen WMF, Van Boekel MAJS. (2000) A Review of Maillard Reaction in Food and Implications to Kinetic Modelling. Trends in Food Science & Technology 11: 364-373.
-Mottram DS, Wedzicha BL, Dodson AT. (2002) Acrylamide is formed in the Maillard reaction. Nature. 419(6906):448-9. doi: 10.1038/419448a.

𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 (𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲) 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀:

𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿-𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰:
-Dr. Varoujan Yaylayan, Professor & Chair of the Department of Food Science & Agricultural Chemistry at McGill University

MinuteFood is created by Kate Yoshida, Arcadi Garcia & Bill Mead, and produced by Neptune Studios LLC.

[MinuteFood]

OK, gimme your favorite examples of GBD-liciousness...I need them in my life!

[chrispi]

As a French person it took me some minutes to understand the duck pun. And I would pronounce it "Mayar", the D (in this type of situation), is often silent

[Majorkill]

I cannot have been the first one to read "MALLARD" on the thumbnail thinking this was gonna be about ducks

[ericschulze]

Well-done! I wrote the Serious Eats article you reference in your citations and use in the video. As a scientist, I was frustrated that there was no good general explainer for the food-curious, so I wrote it myself. So excited to see it used so effectively on screen. Thanks for sharing my work and spreading better awareness for not only what the Maillard (I do say the 'd') is, but also how to practically alter it. Bonus points for including the section on how it differs from caramelization and starch degradation. Keep it up!

[jakeehrlich]

I’ve been self studying food science for about 5 years now and a lot of my knowledge has been hard won, looking everywhere for understandable explanations, attending college classes, or otherwise just improving my baseline so that I can read more technical content. I’m both amazed and a little mad at this channel for condensing so much of what I’ve learned into such easily accessible videos 😅

I’ve even learned a few things I didn’t know before!

[rorysimpson]

When it comes to steaks in particular, salting them with coarse kosher on both sides then setting them on something that lets air touch both top and bottom (I use an old air fryer basket that I don't use for anything else) and leaving it like that in the fridge for an hour before searing creates fantastic Maillard effects. You can get a nice Chicago rare going without those expensive presses that heat up to like 1200 degrees which steak houses use. Can't take credit for that though, learned it from Alton Brown.

[xmuzel]

My milkshake brings all the boys to maillard

[ctwest]

Praise be to the algorithm. I'm a Helen Rennie / Adam Ragusea / J. Kenji Lopez Alt content consumer, so I'm fairly familiar with the information presented, but I *love* the humor, the production, and I'll never tire of hearing (or rambling at anyone who will listen) about food science. Basically this is gold to me, thank you!

[hudgensmovie]

The blood glucose A1C test is also based on the same concept. It is a measure of the browning of blood cells from rubbing against blood serum glucose over the 120 day lifespan of the cells.

[Arkylie]

When I was little, I hated onions. I still hate *raw* onions, because they bite me (I accept that bite as part of salsa, but nowhere else -- and adding raw onions is the fastest way to ruin comfort food like potato salad), but it took me *ages* to realize that *cooked* onions are a whole different creature! And now I love adding cooked onions to just about any savory dish. Also: Mushrooms. I went to Buzz Inn Steak House and ordered mushrooms and they brought me mushrooms that had been cooked, but *not* brought to the point of deliciousness (they looked like those canned mushrooms only heated up -- no color, no crispness), and I've never been more disappointed with a meal I was expecting to be delicious 😭

[stocktonjoans]

for the record, bog bodies could be delicious but we may never know

[rajkamal.achanta]

Oil/fat is a great way for that rxn to proceed because it is basic pH of 10. And it increases the rate of heat transfer by forming a film around the food. That's why foods that are fried with butter or oil taste good :)

[samuelcamero]

This video is a true privileged to have access to. It’s like a cheat code to becoming a better cook.

[haph]

With the baking soda reccomendation, it's important to point out that baking powder will not work, because baking powder has acid(s) mixed in to balance it's pH.

Often, bread recipes that call for only baking soda will also have an acidic ingredient, and ones that call for a mixture, might have a weaker acid/less acid that doesn't fully react with the soda required, or perhaps they want the final product to be more acidic than pure baking soda would give, and more basic than only baking powder would give.

Anyways, the difference between the ingredients baking soda and baking powder, is that soda is a base, while powder is soda neutralized with a weak acid, so only soda will work to raise the pH of a neutral food.

[PastaAivo]

Great, now I feel hungry again. The thing about pH got me thinking though, a lot of Chinese-style food uses baking soda etc. for meat velveting, which I guess could also improve the delicious browning too. Not that you would notice with most things stained with soy/oyster sauce, but I'm getting hungry either way.

[conradkolo]

I live in Montreal, Québec. And I went to school in French my entire life. And as an anglophone, I feel the pain of trying to pronounce French stuff. There's a learning curve, and it's exponential.

[tnn-cjvy]

amazing video, been waiting for a thorough explanation on this for a long time from you. i was hoping you'd have dived deeper into caramelization and dextrinization; but i'm satisfied with the basic (hehe) explanation, too.

[mm-ytsf]

i have wondered if caramelizing sugar reduces the calories in it? it's certainly changing it...and in a general hand wavy thought experiment i figured taken to the extreme the sugar would turn into black carbon which doesn't seem like a high energy food, so my guess was it would reduce it along the way...but i never saw anything definitive saying so.

[noobletify]

Love these videos! Please keep them coming :)

[lanehaden]

I can't believe this channel doesn't have more subscribers, such great content!