Charring

Bitterness as a seasoning

A charred surface contributes bitterness and smoky aromatic compounds that nothing else supplies. Used against something sweet, fatty or acidic, it gives a dish depth and stops it being one-note.

The trick is that it has to be a surface phenomenon. A blackened skin over a soft sweet interior is charring; a vegetable burnt through is just burnt, and the bitterness dominates everything.

So charring wants very high heat and very short time — the opposite of the low steady heat that browns food evenly.

Where it belongs

• Peppers. Blackened whole over a flame or under a grill until the skin blisters, then steamed in a covered bowl and peeled. The flesh is sweet and smoky and the burnt skin comes off entirely.
• Aubergine for baba ganoush, charred whole until collapsing, so the flesh takes on smoke.
• Onions and spring onions, charred on a griddle or over coals until blackened at the edges.
• Tomatoes and chillies for a Mexican salsa, dry-charred in a pan until blistered.
• Lemons and limes, cut side down on a hot pan, which sweetens the juice and adds smoke.
• Cabbage and hispi wedges, cut face hard against a hot pan.
• Corn, over coals or in a dry pan.
• Not: anything thin or delicate, which burns through before the surface has charred.

Charring a pepper

The technique that generalises to most of the rest.

1. Use the highest heat available — a gas flame directly, a very hot grill, a griddle pan, or coals.
2. Put the pepper on whole and leave it until the skin blackens and blisters on that face.
3. Turn it and repeat until the whole surface is blistered and black. It will look ruined. It is not.
4. Put it straight into a bowl and cover it, or into a bag. The trapped steam loosens the skin.
5. Leave for ten minutes, then rub the skin off with your fingers. It should come away easily.
6. Do not rinse it under a tap. Water washes away the smoky compounds and much of the point.
7. Deseed over a bowl and keep the juices, which are intensely flavoured.

Charred against burnt

Charred

Blackening confined to the surface, with a cooked and sweet interior. Deliberate, and usually the skin is removed.

Burnt

Blackening that has penetrated, or that affects something meant to be eaten as it is. Bitter throughout.

The test

Take the black off. If what is underneath is good, it was charred. If it tastes bitter too, it was burnt.

Burnt garlic and burnt spices

Never charring. Both are acrid and cannot be rescued.

Burnt sugar

Sits between the two — a little is a flavour, more is a disaster.

A burnt pan base

A different problem entirely, and the food above it usually needs rescuing rather than the flavour keeping.

Common questions