This week in our course, Chemistry of Food, we talked about browning and caramelization, which happens through a process called the Maillard Reaction. This reaction takes place in the presence of amino acids and saccharides, which is why often BBQ sauces are sweet. The food item begins to brown just as the water evaporates, so this is why caramelization occurs when we cook onions for a certain amount of time, which was our experiment for this week!
We chopped up 2 onions and divided the onions evenly between Elle/Sarah and Jocelyn/me. We used 1 tsp. of vegetable oil. Additionally, we wanted to test the effect of adding baking soda (NaHCO3) to the pan so Jocelyn and I added ¼ tsp to our pan while Elle/Sarah did not. Previously with the green bean experiment in our first week, we learned that NaHCO3 weakens pectin through an acid base reaction that breaks pectin’s hydrogen bonds. By breaking these bonds, the water contained in the onion is able to boil at a much faster rate, therefore caramelizing the onion at a faster rate.
Over the span of 30 minutes, we took observations of our two pans of onions every 5 minutes— noting the color, texture, taste etc. By the end, we noted that although baking soda did help the browning process, the taste was horribly bitter and the onions, although quite brown, became rather mushy. I think perhaps we used way too much baking soda and that adding baking soda to help speed up the process of browning would work if we could test for the perfect amount.
Cooking the onions in the science center was a pretty fun process that left the scent of onions dispersing through the labs for quite a few hours afterward. A few friends even texted me to tell me they could smell it long after we were done.