Professor Heather Smyth

Absolutely.

That's right.

So maillard reaction is like a caramelisation reaction.

It's a little bit different chemically, but the maillard reaction is when something's burning or cooking, definitely that browned flavour and then also the burned compounds that come from the wood itself.

So we've got these gorgeous aroma volatiles that our nose is sensing, and we're either smelling those through our nose or up the back of our throat.

And at the same time, we've got taste compounds, which are on our tongue.

So there's some bitterness associated with smoke flavour, sometimes even sweetness, depending on the type of wood that's used.

to create that smoked flavor in the first place.

There's even trigeminal sensations going on.

So trigeminal is a textural sensation in the mouth.

So you could have a cooling sensation from a smoked flavor or a warming sensation from a smoked flavor as well.

So very complex.

Absolutely.

So much going on.

There's aroma, there's taste, there's texture.

We're feeling all of it at once.

Oh, so many different types of versions of smoked flavour.

Absolutely.

There's hot smoking, there's cold smoking.

There's a range of different ways of applying that smoke to the product to preserve it.