Okay, so I was making chicken soup from stock I had made using a (lightly,) browned carcus and neck. just before dumping the the dumplings into it, the stock’s color was a nice light brown. I added about 1/4 cup of lemon juice, turned my back for 30 seconds after a stir and it turned it an almost milky-off white. Eventually it deepened to this:
It’s delicious, and tastes as expected, I’m just curious as to what happened in the broth’s chemistry?
Seasoned with salt (duh), a sprig of thyme, some ginger and garlic, (just a hint of ginger,) black pepper, lemon zest (which was added with the torn chicken,) and white wine deglazed the pot from browning the dark meat.
The stock was from garlic, onion, celery, carrot and maybe ginger scraps cooked with the chicken carcass…
America’s test kitchen adds baking soda to lower the pH of meat to get it to brown more. Perhaps you did the opposite and the acid lightened and/or prevented browning?
Baking soda raises the pH. (Low pH = acid; high pH = alkaline. Yes, they’re switched.)
Alkalinity catalyses caramelisation and the Maillard reaction, that’s why meat gets to brown more. However in acid environment both processes happen mostly the same as if they were in a neutral environment, acidity doesn’t really prevent this sort of browning. (I’m glad for this, otherwise my Sunday roast would be really sad. I often leave the pork marinading in lemon juice for a day, and it still browns just fine.)
