Despite the fact that everyone and their brother refers to a cookout as a „barbecue,“ grilling is not barbecuing. These are two very different techniques and in fact, are at the opposite ends of the spectrum.
To make it simple, barbecuing consists of cooking tough cuts of meat by exposing them to the smoke and indirect heat of a very low fire for a very long time. The idea is to not only infuse the meat with smoky flavor, but to also break down the tough connective tissues in the meat in order to make it more tender.
Grilling on the other hand is a high heat method in which rather tender foods are cooked quickly over the flame of a very hot fire. When food is exposed to the direct heat of the flames, a seared crust develops over the exterior, and it is this flavor packed crust rather than the smoke from the fire that is responsible for the characteristic grilled flavor.
The flavor that searing provides is created by a process most of us call browning but it is known to scientists as the Maillard reaction.
This occurs when the denatured proteins on the surface of the meat recombine with the sugars present. The combination creates the „meaty“ flavor and changes the color. For this reason, it is also called the browning reaction. The Maillard reaction occurs most readily at around 300° F to 500° F. When meat is cooked, the outside reaches a higher temperature than the inside, triggering the Maillard reaction and creating the strongest flavors on the surface. In the early twentieth century, Louis-Camille Maillard happened upon what came to be known as the Maillard reaction when he was trying to figure out how amino acids linked up to form proteins. He discovered that when he heated sugars and amino acids together, the mixture slowly turned brown.
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