The Maillard reaction: why your meat steams instead of searing

🔬 CHEF TECHNIQUE
The Maillard reaction: why your meat steams instead of searing

That deep brown crust on a steak is not "burnt": it is the Maillard reaction, and it only starts when the surface is dry and hot.

🔬 The science
Proteins and sugars on the surface react from about 140 °C (285 °F), creating hundreds of new flavour compounds. But water boils at 100 °C: as long as the surface is wet, it cannot get hotter than that, so the meat steams and turns grey.

👨‍🍳 How we do it in a professional kitchen
1. Pat the meat completely dry with paper towel.
2. Salt it at least 40 minutes before, or right before cooking: salting in between pulls out moisture that sits on the surface.
3. Heavy pan, very hot, a fat with a high smoke point (vegetable, rice bran, ghee).
4. Do not crowd the pan and do not move the meat for the first 2-3 minutes: it releases by itself when the crust is formed.

💡 Chef's tip: Crowding the pan drops its temperature fast. Two batches always beat one crowded pan.
❌ The mistake I see most: Flipping every 20 seconds and starting in a pan that is not hot enough.

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Photo: sousvideguy · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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