There are good experiment/evidence based writers out there, they're just mostly drowned out by all the noise. Harrold McGee J Kenji Lopez Alt Nathan Myhrvold

There are good experiment/evidence based writers out there, they're just mostly drowned out by all the noise. Harrold McGee J Kenji Lopez Alt Nathan Myhrvold (yes, the one and same) As some of the other comments explain, the problem is a lot of authors use the word "caramelize" when what they actually mean is "brown." This happens on restaurant menus too, as a sort of term inflation thing to try to make things sound more dramatic than they are.