It’s the kitchen mistake we all try to avoid above all else: Don’t burn the food. You can save the dinner that you over salted. You can add dairy or acid to tame the spice when you accidentally dump in too much cayenne. But once those forgotten roasted onions have turned a deep shade of black in the oven, once they’ve crisped to heaps of allium ash, there’s no going back.
And yet, there are those weirdos out there that loved burned food. We all know them. They’re the human vacuums for neglected chocolate chip cookies; the scramblers for the dry, crisp edge of the brownie pan; the charred marshmallow and steak and vegetable enthusiasts.
Are these people simply freaks? To get some answers, I spoke to an official source who bravely agreed to go on record: my stepdad, Frank, who eagerly consumed all the cookies I burned in my high school years. “The burning adds depth to the flavor,” he said. “In the case of cookies, you don’t just have something that’s flatly, overwhelmingly sweet.” He explained that he likes that added note of bitterness, of char. “There’s also a textural element. I like when the bottom of the cookie is burned and extra crispy and the top is nice and soft.”
She microwaves popcorn well past the time when the last few kernels pop—she just lets it keep going until the kernels combust from within and melt into each other.
My coworker Adina also has a loved one with an affinity for burned food: her sister.
“I can’t understand it myself, but from what I’ve observed in her it’s a textural thing,” Adina told me. “She wants the crispy edge piece of the brownies, and the mac and cheese, which I can relate to. Where she goes that I can’t is, she seems to crave the almost carbon-like flavor of burned food, when it’s turned from dark brown to black. She microwaves popcorn well past the time when the last few kernels pop—she just lets it keep going until the kernels combust from within and melt into each other. This incredibly acrid smell would fill the house growing up, and cause all of us a lot of suffering. One time my dad grabbed the microwaved popcorn bag and threw it outside into the snow.”
In defense of our family members, burning food does enhance flavor. After all, the Maillard reaction is a coveted cooking phenomenon. As food browns and caramelizes, amino acids and sugars are rearranged, producing complex, savory flavors. This chemical reaction gives food a savory, umami, and—when it really gets black—bitter flavor.
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