If I put a chicken in the over for way too long and it is now a black lump of coal. If I look it under a microscope is it still chicken? Can I use it on my next barbeceu instead of regular coal? LoL.
Is a burned chicken or any kind of food such as bread or meat or vegetables (burned to a crisp) similar to a burned piece of wood?
In: Chemistry
There are several different reactions that occur when you add heat to meat, all of which produce different chemicals.
At the lowest temperature, you have the Maillard reaction. (searing the meat) Amino acids and sugars fuse together, forming melanoidins, brown-colored substances that give you that seared/roasted flavor. Marinating or salting the meat before cooking increases the amount of free aminos and sugars, making this process easier and more flavorful.
At higher temperatures, we have carmelization. Polymers of sugar and protein are broken down into smaller hydrocarbons. You can think of the original chemicals as long chains of mostly Carbon, Oxygen, and Hydrogen with a few other things mixed in. Now the long chains are split randomly into smaller ones. Hundreds of different types of molecules. They tend to be sweeter than the original components. And the large variety gives a complex flavor. But it takes time to do this properly, because add too much heat and you get…
Pyrolysis. Literally meaning “broken down by fire.” All those long, chain-like molecules start breaking down completely. The oxygen and hrlydrogen form water vapor and fly away, leaving elemental carbon. (charcoal) And even some of the carbon will start to form carbon dioxide, leaving behind only ash from the minerals in the meat. This plus the chains that broke down into half-links give it that harsh, inedible flavor.
And so, thoroughly burned meat is a mixture of all these things. Charcoal, ash, and partially broken down proteins and sugars. All mixed into a nasty black chunk of formely-meat.
It is somewhat flammable, so you could use it as charcoal. But all of the nasty flavors would be infused into whatever you were grilling. And it would burn at a lower temp than pure carbon. Would not advise.
Three basic things are happening, depending on what you are cooking of course.
1) Volatiles are driven away. Volatile, in science speak, are chemicals that will leave what they are in and go into the air – they are smells essentially. You can encourage them to leave more quickly via heating. This is part of what something foods don’t taste the same after boiling or heating for a long time. Their flavors literally flew away.
2) Combustion – if your food is literally ‘a black lump of coal’ you entered the realm of combustion – literally burning. It’s different from coal or charcoal though. Charcoal isn’t just ‘burned stuff’, it’s actually not burned at all! Because charcoal is produced without oxygen, what happens is *the volatiles* are driven off and you are left with ‘burnable stuff’. What you’re cook has burned though so it’s “post burning”. It’s as burned as can be.
3) Milliard Reactions. Ok, these are the really interesting ones. When you cook food you are often entering the world of a class of chemistry called “Milliard Reactions” which are a result of proteins, sugars, and fats being heated up a lot *without burning* and *with low water*. These reactions produce extremely aromatic compounds *that are fucking delicious*. Think – baking bread, frying bacon, Cajun roux, fresh chocolate chip cookies, steak on the grill, roast coffee beans, fried peppers and onions, Guinness Beer, Bourbon. In each of those examples you are getting flavors produced as a result of milliard reactions and they are HUGELY important to what we’d all just call ‘tasty food’.
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