• The Maillard reaction, aka the browning reaction, also takes place at these temperatures This is the same reaction that causes browning on your toast or your steak when you cook it (see here) The Maillard reaction is far more complex than caramelization, involving interactions among sugars, proteins, and enzymes The products of the reaction number in the hundreds, and are still not fully identified In an ideal world, as the onions continue to cook, three things will happen at the same time: (1) the complete softening of the onions’ cell structures, (2) maximum caramelization (i.e., as brown as you can get before bitter products begin to develop), and (3) maximum Maillard browning (with the same caveat as caramelization) By enhancing these results, I should be able to speed up my overall process Mission 1: Increase the Effects of Caramelization The most obvious way to speed up caramelization is to add more raw ingredients, namely, sugar The sugars in onions, as mentioned above, are glucose, fructose, and sucrose (a combination of one glucose and one fructose molecule)— exactly the same as the caramelization products of granulated sugar So I tried cooking a touch of sugar in a dry skillet until it reached a deep golden brown, then adding the onions and tossing them to coat them in the hot caramel It worked like a charm, shaving a good to minutes off my total cooking time and giving me sweeter, more deeply caramelized end results, without affecting the overall flavor profile of the finished product Mission 2: Increase the Maillard Reaction There are a number of things that affect the Maillard reaction, but the overriding factors are temperature and pH At this point, I had no safe way to increase the temperature —just like with a steak, if you cook the onions too hot, the edges and outsides of each piece begin to burn before the interiors have a chance to release their chemicals Low and slow is the only way to go On the other hand, I had a bit of control over the pH In general, the higher the pH (i.e., the more basic or alkaline), the faster the Maillard reaction takes place The key is moderation While large amounts of baking soda dramatically increased the browning rate (by over 50 percent!), any more than ¼ teaspoon per pound of chopped onions proved to be too much—the metallic flavor of the baking soda took over I also noticed that the baking-powdered onions were much softer—not an undesirable trait for a soup This is because pectin, the chemical glue that holds vegetable cells together, weakens at higher pH levels Faster breakdown means faster release of chemicals, which means faster overall cooking Mission 3: Increase the Heat Back to the heat As I mentioned, the problem with increasing the heat too much higher than medium-low is that the onions begin to cook unevenly Some bits and edges will start to blacken long before other bits reach even the ... slow is the only way to go On the other hand, I had a bit of control over the pH In general, the higher the pH (i.e., the more basic or alkaline), the faster the Maillard reaction takes place The. .. At this point, I had no safe way to increase the temperature —just like with a steak, if you cook the onions too hot, the edges and outsides of each piece begin to burn before the interiors have a chance to release their chemicals...profile of the finished product Mission 2: Increase the Maillard Reaction There are a number of things that affect the Maillard reaction, but the overriding factors are temperature and pH