Subreddit: r/AskScience
User: u/ochocosunrise
Original Post:
Is there sugar in meat that allows for Maillard's reaction?
Today I was learning about Maillard's Reaction in cooking. It's described as a reaction between amino acids and sugars, and it's what produces a beautiful crust on steaks and an amazing flavor.
However, when I Googled "how much sugar naturally exists in meat", the majority of the results stated that there was a very miniscule amount, if any.
How can Maillard's reaction occur in meat if this is the case?
My Response:
We round our nutrition facts; it’s particularly advantageous for the sugar content, especially if the sugar content is closer to 0. They are typically rounded to whole numbers, although occasionally you’ll see on certain labels that it’s determined to the first decimal. Regardless, the sugar concentration in meat barely makes a dent, but it’s certainly present.
In any case, the Maillard reaction for meat products produces compounds very minute quantities of Maillard products, as someone mentioned that there is very low concentration of sugars. But our ability to pick up these Maillard products is quite highly sensitive.
The reaction rate for the Maillard reaction is as follows:
Ribose > Fructose > Glucose >> all other reducing sugars
Ribose dominates as the source of sugar in meat due to its presence in RNA (the deoxyribose sugar in DNA undergoes an analogous reaction) - in fact, there is a cross reaction between certain ribonucleotides (inosinate and guanylate) that greatly enhance ‘umami’ intensity and amino acids, giving rise to very high intensity meaty aromas and taste byproducts.
But there are also small quantities of glycogen in meat tissue, as well as adenosine triphosphate/disphosphate which can also undergo the Maillard reaction. The glycogen reducing end will initiate reactions with amino acids, with some of the cooking process hydrolyzes the glycogen into glucose.
There are also glycoproteins in meat that contain sugar chains and rings, which are not easily metabolized by the human enzymatic machinery, but are still present and can chemically react via the Maillard reaction.
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