black garlic powder

Black garlic is garlic with skins that has been stored in a high-temperature and high-humidity environment of 60-70 degrees. In such an environment, the structure of the garlic clove itself is destroyed by high temperature, and the original material components interact with each other, resulting in complex physical and chemical reactions. , garlic will gradually turn from white to black, and when it is completely black, a new "Alliciliaceae" food will be produced.

The culprit that makes garlic gradually become dark is a guy called Maillard reaction (also known as non-enzymatic browning reaction). This guy is actually very common in the culinary world. Many foods change color after cooking because of it. For example, the tan on the surface of bread is produced by the Maillard reaction.

Although the Maillard reaction blackened garlic, it gave black garlic a lot of things. The garlic that has undergone the Maillard reaction has a reduced moisture content, and the remaining moisture is just enough to make the texture of black garlic soft, so there is a "garlic-flavored chestnut".

The Maillard reaction decomposes the starch contained in the original garlic and converts it into reducing sugar. The sweet and sour taste of black garlic comes from this, so there is plum-flavored garlic.

After the Maillard reaction in garlic, the original unstable and irritating sulfur-containing volatiles are changed into stable and non-aromatic substances. The original pungent smell of garlic is gone, and a new star in the food industry, black garlic, is rising.