How do you like your toast?
2
Understanding browning
Bread contains both carbohydrate and protein and when these substances are heated together a brown colour is produced. Dry heat from grilling, baking or frying will cause a complex chemical reaction to take place, so that a brown colour is produced.
This happens to the outside of a loaf when bread is baked and to the insides of the loaf when a slice of bread is toasted. A high temperature is needed so it is only the surface of the food that becomes brown - the inside rarely gets hot enough. So bread, chips, cakes and roast meat are brown on the outside only.
This browning reaction is called the Maillard reaction, after the Frenchman who discovered it. The longer the bread is in the toaster, the more the reaction takes place and the more browning occurs. If the bread is left in for a long time, there is so much browning that the toast becomes burned and unpleasant to taste.
