01/10/2021
There’s a reason why pizza is so popular. Humans are drawn to foods that are fatty and sweet and rich and complex. Pizza has all of these components. Cheese is fatty, meat toppings tend to be rich, and the sauce is sweet.
Pizza toppings are also packed with a compound called glutamate, which can be found in tomatoes, cheese, pepperoni, and sausage. When glutamate hits our tongues, it tells our brains to get excited – and to crave more of it. This compound actually causes our mouths to water in anticipation of the next bite.
Then there are the combinations of ingredients. Cheese and tomato sauce are like a perfect marriage. On their own, they taste pretty good. But according to culinary scientists, they contain flavor compounds that taste even better when eaten together.
Another quality of pizza that makes it so delicious: Its ingredients become brown while cooking in the oven.
Foods turn brown and crispy when we cook them because of two chemical reactions.
The first is called caramelization, which happens when the sugars in food become brown. Most foods contain at least some sugar; once foods are between 230 and 320 degrees, their sugars begin to turn brown. Caramel is made from several thousand compounds, making it one of the most complex food products. On a pizza, ingredients like onions and tomatoes become caramelized during baking, making them rich and sweet, and flavorful. That brown and crispy crust is also the result of the dough caramelizing.
While the meat and cheese on your pizza also get brown, this is due to a different process called the “Maillard reaction,” which is named after French chemist Louis-Camille Maillard.
