What is the difference between having some “char” and something being burnt? Why is one something often preferred and the other pretty much universally hated?

Question

Say you’re having steaks for instance; Why is it that a bit of char tastes good (to a lot of people), but it’s different than being burnt? Isn’t charring just some level of burning? And what makes the difference between when something will taste charred or burnt?

In: 3

Answer 1

If you burn something, that means you charred it unintentionally. Something like noodles, cake, etc. that you don’t want that type of flavor involved in. You can also burn foods you do normally char (like meats or peppers) but that requires basically going too far with the char. It revolves around the flavor of the food and how it changes when that happens (this is also excluding the smoky flavor you may get from say a wood grilled char).

Ultimately two different words that mean the same thing, but in different flavor contexts. A bit of char on a marshmallow or a bell pepper is good, a bit of char on your lasagna is not good.