ChefSteps is a team of chefs, writers, and food lovers who develop recipes, techniques, and guides to help people cook better at home.

ChefSteps

A golden-brown turkey. A mahogany-brown rib roast. Chocolate-brown pretzels. Their color and flavor largely come from a chemical reaction named for the French physician Louis-Camille Maillard (say: my-ard).Professor Maillard’s browning reaction is wonderfully complex: amino acids and certain sugars react and form by-products, which then react with each other, and these react with each other, and so on until they form hundreds of different molecules. These molecules give your roasted, baked, and fried food its characteristic smell and taste.