The Lowdown on Golden-Brown
The Lowdown on Golden-Brown
Great cooks aren't afraid of the dark, at least when it comes to food. The best chefs know that when it comes to color, dark equals flavor.
Almost any food or ingredient can be browned in some way, even flour and sugar. Opportunities to go for the gold include charring, searing, roasting and toasting, just to name a few. Such techniques add depth of flavor to just about anything without adding any calories, sugar, fat or salt.
Try the following methods and look for recipes that call for these techniques to bring out the best in your favorite dishes and ingredients.
Toasting
Toasting brings out the best in nuts, seeds and spices, not to mention bread and buns. Evenly applying low, dry heat either directly or indirectly, such as in an oven or toaster, is a simple example of this technique. Nuts, seeds and spices may be effectively toasted on the stovetop in a dry skillet over low to medium-low heat.
Baking
Baking pie crusts, cookies, bread and other baked goods and pastries until dark golden-brown intensifies the flavors in them and generally makes them taste amazing. The technique is one of prolonged dry heat, usually accomplished in an oven. It is nearly identical to roasting, although the term baking is often reserved for baked goods and some foods cooked at lower oven temps.
Roasting
Many a veggie hater has changed their tune when introduced to the darkened edges on roasted cauliflower, broccoli or carrots. And who doesn't love the dark, crusty end of a roast beef? Roasting is an indirect cooking method most often done in a dry oven at a high temperature. It's also the technique that transforms raw nuts and turns coffee beans into the world's most perfect morning brew.
Searing
Applying a very high direct heat to foods like steaks, chops, roasts and scallops produces a dark exterior crust that adds textural contrast and new desirable flavor compounds through the processes of caramelization and through a chemical reaction known as the Maillard reaction. It may be done at the onset or the end of another cooking process, such as braising or barbequing.
GOOD TO KNOW: A chemical reaction between amino acids and sugars, the Maillard reaction is responsible for color development and new flavor formation in a significant number of cooked foods. It was named for the French chemist Louis-Camille Maillard, who first described it in 1912.
Caramelizing
Caramelization, the browning of natural sugars, typically involves slowly and evenly applying direct heat to a food. On a stovetop it turns sharp, spicy and bitter ingredients like onions, shallots and garlic into sweet ones with a melty, rich texture. Technically, browned butter is caramelized butter and tastes way better than just plain ol' butter, the same way that caramel is so much better than straight-up sugar.
Grilling
A dry direct high-heat method, grilling is another example of flavor development through the Maillard reaction. It's responsible for the production of dark, delicious bits of char on veggies, chicken, fish, steaks, chops and burgers. It may be done outdoors on a gas or charcoal grill or indoors on a grill pan or under a broiler.
Frying
Sautéing, stir-frying, pan-frying and deep-frying are all types of stovetop frying techniques whereby food is cooked indirectly in a variable amount of hot oil or other fat. It may be done at medium-high to high temperatures. Golden-brown fried potatoes, chicken and fish are tasty examples.
