Browning: Colour Is Flavour

The brown crust on a seared steak, a roast potato, toast or fried mushrooms comes from the Maillard reaction: proteins and sugars reacting at high heat to make hundreds of new flavour compounds. It is why browned food tastes savoury and deep, and why grey food tastes of very little.

A dry surface

Browning only starts once the surface is hotter than boiling water, and it cannot get there while it is wet. Pat meat and fish dry with kitchen paper, and dry washed vegetables well.

Salt meat well ahead, an hour or the night before in the fridge, or right before it goes in the pan. Salted a few minutes ahead, it draws out moisture that has not yet been reabsorbed and the pan fills with liquid.

A hot pan with room

Heat the pan before the food goes in, then add a thin film of oil and wait until it shimmers.

Crowding is the commonest mistake. Too much food at once cools the pan, the juices pool, and everything steams. Leave space around each piece and cook in batches; it is quicker in the end.

Heavy pans hold heat best. Cast iron and thick stainless steel brown far better than a thin non-stick pan.

Leave it alone

Once the food is in, do not move it. Meat sticks at first and lets go of its own accord when a crust has formed. Tug it too early and the crust tears off and stays in the pan.

Mushrooms and onions are the same: stirring constantly keeps them pale. Stir only now and then.

The fond

The brown film left on the bottom of the pan is called the fond, and it is concentrated flavour. Pour in a little wine, stock or water while the pan is hot and scrape it up with a wooden spoon. This is deglazing, and it is the start of most good sauces and stews.

Brown is good, black is not. If the fond has burnt, wipe the pan out before going on, or the whole dish will taste bitter.

For stews and braises

Slow cooking wants hard-working cuts with plenty of connective tissue: beef chuck, shin or brisket, lamb shoulder, pork shoulder, chicken thighs. Over hours that tissue melts into gelatine and makes both meat and sauce silky. Lean cuts go dry and stringy.

Brown the meat well first, then cook it at a bare simmer, never a boil. Fast boiling toughens meat however long it cooks. Stews are better the next day, when the flavours have settled and the fat can be lifted off cold.