Is eating burnt food bad for us?
It's not usually the aim of cooking dinner to burn food.Why do top restaurants feature burnt food on their menu?
You are trendy if you are one of those people who accidentally burns everything.
In the UK, burning food is a sign of a bad cook.Many of us don't like burnt food.Some people can't get enough of the smoky taste.You can find burnt food in restaurants in your own city if you ignore the lure of the dark side.
You might be surprised to know that burning isn't all about meat.Adding 'burnt onions' to oils, ketchups and salads is one trend that doesn't seem to be going away.
After a kitchen fire in a restaurant in the Netherlands, the team came up with the idea of curing fish in burnt onion powder and serving it with a dashi containing burned onion oil and toast hay.At his restaurant in Michigan, a Mexican chef has been known to scatter the ashes of chillies and corn husks into dishes.
Some eateries are burning.Sqirl in LA is serving 'burnt' brioche with ricotta and jam.You can reply, "well that's the whole point!", even if it wasn't, when someone gives you that assured look.
It has a history in many cultures and is not new.Caribbean and Mexican cuisines add depth to their flavours.In Mexican mole, blackened tomatoes and tomatillos are used to make a sauce.Turkish 'burned milk pudding' involves burning the base, Vietnamese 'nuoc mau' is a burnt caramel sauce and French crme brlée involves close-to burnt sugar for that desirable 'crack' in the topping.
This is often charring.Scientifically, 'burning' means the food has turned mostly into carbon and could turn to dust before your eyes.The charring doesn't allow the food to break down.If you are not careful, char can turn to burn and set off your smoke detector.).
Carbon and a few other elements make up most organic substances.Carbon dioxide and burnt carbon are black when you burn or char food.The Maillard reaction, which takes place between amino acids and sugars in foods and smells, looks and tastes good, is what this process goes further than.
It is a step too far to reach the blacker end of the cooking spectrum.It gives others a chance to practice the dark arts of haute cuisine.
Swedish scientists brought attention to acrylamide, a molecule that forms when food is charred or burnt.It's a potential carcinogen in its industrial form.The Food Standards Agency raises concerns about whether acrylamide is a carcinogen in humans when eaten at the levels found in cooked food.
Dietary acrylamide is not related to the risk of most common cancers according to one review.A small association with cancer in non-smokers couldn't be ruled out.
The "go for gold" recommendation is to grill, fry or bake food until it is yellow, not brown or black.You won't find acrylamide in dairy, meat or fish products.Potato and other root vegetables are more likely to be a risk than other foods.
Meat cooked over a very high heat, such as a fire or barbecue, may increase your risk of cancer, which is unrelated to the presence of acrylamide but carcinogens called PAHs.
The occasional slice of burnt toast isn't going to kill you, but a diet high in calories should be avoided, even if there is a link to cancer.
Adding activated charcoal was the last black food craze, if you have been on social media for more than a few years.bagels, ice cream, pancakes, Swiss rolls, smoothies, and much more were given the Halloween treatment.
This unusual black food was more of a visual statement than a health movement, but some claim taking activated charcoal as a supplement capsule or powder in food and drink can have health benefits such as 'detoxification'.There are no studies looking at the long-term health effects of the doses found in products.
Burnt food or the charcoal you put on the barbecue are not the same as activated charcoal.It is made from materials such as bamboo, coal and coconut shells that are heated to a very high temperature.It becomes very absorbent once it has gone through the heating process to make it active.
It has been used in medicine to treat poisoning by absorbing a harmful chemical in the gut.It can bind with vitamins and prevent them from being absorbed by the body.The absorption of vitamins found in milk, such as calcium, may be prevented by the use of active charcoal ice cream.
Some medications may also be affected by this.It is possible to reduce the efficiency of the contraceptive pill by consuming activated charcoal within a few hours.
The founder of the drinks company Bittermens once joked that he was going to make a cocktail with activated charcoal to reduce the effectiveness of contraceptives.Should these foods, drinks and products be served to customers without a warning?
There is no concrete evidence to support the use of activated charcoal to lower cholesterol, decrease flatulence, remedy hangovers or help the body 'detox', all things it is promoted as being good for.