Maillard reaction & Dark roux for Gumbo https://foodcrumbles.com/maillard-reaction-dark-roux-gumbo/---The main trick for making a good gumbo is to make a dark dark roux, really dark. It’s relatively simple but packs the gumbo with a lot of flavour. Skipping this dark roux really makes the dish a lot less flavourful. Since this dark roux is so important, it deserves its own post, serving as a great introduction to the Maillard reaction (you’ll read more on that later in the post).
Making a dark rouxThe basis for a gumbo is definitely the dark roux. Once this has been made most of the flavour development is done, the rest is ‘easy’. Making a dark roux is not very complicated, the most important ingredient is simply patience.---
---The course instructors taught us to keep up heating until it was well darker than a peanut butter colour. My experience is that you generally think it’s finished too early, so continue going just a little longer (but black definitely is too much!).
Dark roux = not thickeningMost of you are probably familiar with using a roux for thickening sauces for a pie or a lasagna. This dark roux starts very similarly, but has a very different function than the so-called white roux.
The white roux is used purely to thicken sauces, it barely contributes any flavour. This is because the flour and fat are only heat enough for the flour to thicken the water mix. Once it’s thickened up, the heat is turned off.
The dark roux though, keeps heating at this point. Because of this continued high intensity heating the flour is ‘cooked’, what’s more, the starch in the flour (which causes the thickening) will start breaking down. In other words, it cannot thicken as much anymore!
Maillard reaction: browning & flavour developmentSo if the dark roux doesn’t contribute to thickening it must contribute elsewhere. This is where the flavour component comes in. The proteins in the butter and the sugars in the flour will start reacting together because of the prolonged heat. This is the so-called Maillard reaction, a chemical reaction which leads to the formation of brown molecules (hence the brown dark roux) and a lot of different flavour aromas.
A Maillard reaction occurs when a protein (more specifically an amine, which can be found in proteins, peptides and amino acids, the building blocks of proteins) and a reducing sugar (for example glucose or fructose). Flour contains both proteins (one of the types is gluten) and reducing sugars (flour will always contain some sugars, even though most of the flour consists of starch). The high temperatures of the roux greatly speed up this reaction.
