Mmmmm. Sizzling bacon. Just the name conjures up that thick, sweet and salty aroma. You make it for breakfast and the whole house smells like bacon-y goodness until lunch. But why is this?
The main reason why bacon smells so good is thanks to something known as the Maillard Reaction. In simple terms, this reaction happens when sugar and protein are mixed together in a temperature over 285 degrees Fahrenheit—and it’s responsible for some of the tastiest foods around, because the reaction causes foods to brown. Meat, marshmallows, toast, and even chocolate rely on it.
Bacon contains sugars used for flavor, so it too undergoes the Maillard reaction. When it does, the delicious browning-meat scent mixes with the melting-fat aroma and is released into the air, probably flying straight past your nose and into your stomach. The aroma consists of a lot of organic chemical compounds, but apparently the ones that are responsible for the scent of meat are pyrazines, pyridines, and furans.
This scent plays right into our biology. Bacon has some protein, but is mostly high in fat and salt—two things ancient humans needed to survive. They needed to crave these things, to savor them, because otherwise they might not seek out enough of them to survive. Further, our ancestors learned to cook their meat—which reduced the number of deathly parasites and pathogens in the meat, breaking down food to a point where their bodies didn’t have to expend as much energy to digest it. So at some point in the past, the human body evolved to seek the smell of cooked meat, associating it with being safe (and delicious).
Of course, a lot of people worry about eating too much bacon, so there is a new alternative coming down the line—bacon-flavored seaweed, which is reportedly twice as healthy as kale, and vegan. Of course, it’s genetically modified, but even if that is harmful, sometimes bacon is just worth it.
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Feature image: Thinkstock
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