Have you ever wondered why the potato gets a completely different form, flavor and aroma when fried with boiling? The noticeable difference is the temperature. During boiling the temperature reaches 100° C, while in the pan the potato is cooked at temperatures above 160° C.
So what happens to these temperatures? Which foods are affected and what do they have in common? Responses to these changes have been given for years, of course, but may not be well known, but you will realize that they are of particular interest.
In 1912, French medical researcher Louis-Camille Maillard (Louis-Camille Maillard) explained the reactions and changes that occur in food ingredients when cooking at high temperatures. It analyzed how the building blocks of proteins (amino acids) and sugars interact with each other, and brought to light a complex chain of reactions that begins when protein-containing foods reach about 140° C.
These foods develop a "toy" between amino acids and sugars, which produces the characteristics of brown and golden colors, releasing intense aromas and flavors unique to each food.
To honor the French scientist, these molecular changes were called the "Maillard reaction".
Of course, talking about protein foods means meat, nuts, cereals as well as many vegetables. And how is this reaction reflected in food processing? The "shielding" of the steak, the fragrant bread crust, the aroma of roasted nuts, coffee, spices.
The reasons that are worth knowing some of the basic principles of this reaction are to improve our flavor combinations in simple and everyday foods, but also to learn to be protected from the abuse of such foods.
The egg with which we smear the surface of a dough is a source of protein to make its crust beautiful. Or the cream that falls in hot sugar gives the necessary proteins and sugars to get the taste of the candy.
There is, however, the other side that it is good to take seriously to keep high levels of nutrient intake from our body.
There are some undesirable side effects associated with this reaction. Characteristic is the binding of amino acids that are not hydrolysed in the digestive system, resulting in a substantial part of the nutritional value of the food being lost.
A range of vitamins is also destroyed during high temperature processing. Vitamin C is destroyed in the presence of oxygen, and vitamins B1, B6 and B12 that come in contact with the reaction products also lose their nutritional value.
Of course, it is known that in the continuous heating of oils at 170-200 ° C there are produced toxic products which have been documented to be associated with a series of diseases, especially when large quantities of foods processed in these conditions are consumed.
source: The science of cooking (DK Books), enallaktiko.gr
By Aggeliki Koskeridou
Holistic Doctor – Counseling Psychotherapist
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
MSc Health Psychology