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Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren Bolga bam here. While it may sound like a

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Speaker 1: far off concept baked up in a sterile science lab,

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Speaker 1: you've almost certainly eaten food that has gone through the

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Speaker 1: Mayor reaction. In fact, you probably eat foods several times

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Speaker 1: a week or day that have gone through this peculiar process,

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Speaker 1: sometimes dubbed the flavor reaction. The Mayor reaction is a

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Speaker 1: pillar of food science and the answer to the question

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Speaker 1: what makes cooked food taste good? So one in the

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Speaker 1: world is it discovered more than a hundred years ago

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Speaker 1: by French chemist Louis Kami Mayar. The Maya reaction is

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Speaker 1: a series of consecutive complex reactions between amino acids and

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Speaker 1: sugars when food is cooked. In Layman's terms, it's the

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Speaker 1: chemical reaction that occurs when you brown your food at

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Speaker 1: a temperature between two hundred and eighty five and three

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Speaker 1: fifty five degrees ahrenheit that's one forty and one seventy

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Speaker 1: nine celsius, creating deeper colors and tastier flavors. During this process,

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Speaker 1: flavor compounds in the food breakdown to create lots of

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Speaker 1: new flavor compounds. Those compounds then break down, and so

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Speaker 1: on and so on, so that delicious savory flavor that

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Speaker 1: you get with each crunch of your seared steak is

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Speaker 1: in part a direct result of the mayor reaction. Here's

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Speaker 1: a step by step guide what happens at a microscopic level.

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Speaker 1: When heat is applied to foods containing sugars and particular

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Speaker 1: amino acids. Those molecules react and form a compound called

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Speaker 1: the Hinds or Amadori compound. These then further react to

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Speaker 1: form aromatic compounds. In the final step, large complex molecules

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Speaker 1: called melanoidons are formed. These eventually produced the food's brown color.

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Speaker 1: So how is the mayor reaction different from caramelization? We

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Speaker 1: spoke with Chef Alex Loovic of the Napa Valley Inglenok Winery.

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Speaker 1: He said, simply put, caramelization is the browning of sugars,

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Speaker 1: while the mayor reaction is a bit more complex and

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Speaker 1: involves the interaction between amino acids and sugars. The mayor

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Speaker 1: reaction begins to occur at a lower temperature than caramelization

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Speaker 1: and produces many complex flavor compounds. It's one reason why

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Speaker 1: food that has undergone This reaction is often desirable and

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Speaker 1: can be considerably more exciting and interesting to eat. Both

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Speaker 1: caramelization and the mayor reaction are responsible for some of

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Speaker 1: the colors and flavors in foods that we know and love.

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Speaker 1: A caramelization results in the sugar crust on top of kremboulet,

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Speaker 1: the sweetness of onions that you cook down on the

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Speaker 1: stove top, and pineapple that you cook on a grill

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Speaker 1: or in the bottom of a pan for a pineapple

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Speaker 1: upside down cake. Caramelization leads to more toasty flavors. Think

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Speaker 1: of the hints of toffee, butter, jam stone, fruits, and

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Speaker 1: cotton candy that you might encounter in the or mentioned foods. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: the mayor reaction creates more roasty flavors. Think of the

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Speaker 1: hints of toast, citrus, currants, chocolate, and coffee that you

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Speaker 1: might get in the crust of a seasoned steak or fish,

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Speaker 1: or a roast chicken or brisket, or in a dark

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Speaker 1: beer like a stouter porter, or in chocolate or coffee themselves.

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Speaker 1: It can be difficult to separate the results of the

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Speaker 1: two processes, sometimes as many foods involved both, like toasted bread,

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Speaker 1: caramels that are made with dairy and amber colored beers. Interestingly,

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Speaker 1: while mayor reactions occur fast in cooking, they can also

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Speaker 1: develop slowly over time when food is stored at low temperatures.

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Speaker 1: For instance, cheeses that ripen over time develop intense flavors

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Speaker 1: in part because of the mayor reaction. Today's episode was

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Speaker 1: written by Jeremy Glass and produced by Tyler Clay. For

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Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other complex topics at

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit

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