The distinctive crunch of a piece of warm toast in the morning is enough to inspire even the sleepiest eyes to perk up at the breakfast table, complete with sunny-side-up eggs with crispy edges and two crunchy slices of well-done bacon. And, well, what’s better than a juicy burger, complete with grill marks, sandwiched between two toasty buns? A discussion is heating up on the internet, asking a thought-provoking question that deals with the charred items we know and love to eat.
On Nov. 9, Redditor u/NiceSwimmingSugar on the subreddit r/AskReddit asked the users of the platform a simple, six-word question: “What tastes better a little burnt?” Which led to a rousing discussion, with 16,900 upvotes and over 17,000 responses in less than 24 hours, with users chiming in with their favorite food items that they enjoy blackening to new, flavorful heights.
“Non-crispy pepperoni is about a 4 on a scale from 1 to 10 in my book, but burn the edges a little and it goes straight to 10,” wrote one Reddit user.
“Bratwurst,” said another Redditor, to which another user replied, “The best wurst.”
One Reddit user simply said “Ends,” which refers to a Kansas City barbecue dish called burnt ends — little nuggets of fatty brisket deeply charred to concentrate the meaty goodness into a flavor-packed bite.
“You cannot claim to have the best BBQ if you don’t have burnt ends,” said one user in reply. “Burnt ends are the greatest piece of meat you can put in your mouth.”
But meat actually didn't dominate the discussion — in fact, it was vegetables that stole the scorched show. Many users pointed out onions, broccoli and Brussels sprouts as veggies that do well with a bit of blackening.
Also, many — and we mean many — Reddit users took to the comments to gush about their shared love for one charred root vegetable in particular:
“Roasted carrots,” said a Reddit user in a comment that has received 5,000 upvotes. “Make them just a bit black on the edges and they’re so f---ing good.”
“I thought I wouldn’t agree with anything in this post (like a f--king idiot) but god DAMN do I love me a slightly charred carrot,” replied another Redditor. “Sh-t tastes BONKERS. Little bit of perfectly cooked carrot mixed with the burnt caramelised carrot edges is out of this world. Salivating thinking about it.”
“Loving the aggressive carrot liking going on here,” said another Redditor.
“Basically just any kind of cooked vegetable is better off a little crispy. Almost all of them that aren’t leafy greens,” said another user on Reddit, bringing up an interesting point about charred veggies: Why, exactly, do they taste so much better that way?
In 2021, Samantha Fore, a Kentucky chef and owner of Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites shared some insights with TODAY Food about the reasons that burnt vegetables like carrots, Brussels sprouts and onions taste so darn good.
“That’s the fun thing about charring is that it tells you when it’s done,” Fore told TODAY, suggesting that an easy way to know when something is done on the grill, she said, is when it stops sticking to the pan, grill or skillet.
Fore said that the reason a charred veggie tastes so good has to do with the inherent sweetness of a starchier vegetable like a carrot — or even toast. The longer cook time amplifies the sweet factor and leads to caramelization and candy sweet flavors
What Fore is talking about in terms of taste is based in a concept known as the Maillard reaction. What this scientific process entails is many small and simultaneous chemical reactions that occur when the proteins and sugars in food are transformed by fire and heat. These complex changes are responsible for the production of new tastes, smells and colors — namely, brown and black.
Think of what happens when you take an ear of corn and char it on the grill versus if you were to boil it. This reaction intensifies the flavors of just about any food you can toss on a grill, causing that corn to contain a more complex flavor than it would have gotten from lower-temp cooking methods.
Fore’s favorite charred veggie is cabbage, charred with olive oil, salt and pepper, but she also loves to sizzle wedges of turnips, radishes and more. Other vegetables that do well with a bit of scorching include cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.
Still, the Maillard reaction isn’t limited to vegetables and meat: Sweet foods like fruits and desserts also benefit from a bit of char. This includes sugar itself, which becomes caramel through the Maillard reaction — perfect to drizzle on grilled peaches or plums or onto a slice of Basque burnt cheesecake.
The world is your oyster — and you can actually char it, too.
