On Food and Cooking

stove than they’re meant to be at the table. (Minimizing the amount of thickener will also reduce the ...

Different Starches and Their Qualities Cooks have several different forms of starch to choose among for thicke ...

they lend a cloudiness and distinct “cereal” flavor to starch-water mixtures. Light that passes rig ...

flour as starch. Flour has a distinct wheat flavor that cooks often transform by precooking the ...

unlike that of wheat flour, which is milled dry. Rice Starch Rice starch is seldom seen in Western ma ...

leave their sauces with a translucent, glossy appearance. The properties of root starches suit them ...

swollen granules give a noticeable initial graininess to sauces. However the granules are fragile, and re ...

long enough to be softened. Because tapioca keeps well in the ground and is processed into starch within da ...

WheatShortGood CornShortModerate PotatoStringyPoor TapiocaStringyPoor ArrowrootStringyGood AppearanceFlavor WheatOpaqueStrong Co ...

temperature is higher than the other root starches, more like the range for cornstarch. A number of othe ...

varieties of corn whose seeds contain little or no amylose and are nearly all amylopectin, which ...

starches don’t normally have. Such starches are listed on ingredient labels as “modified starch.” The Influenc ...

starches can withstand the acidities typical of yogurt and many fruits (pH 4). Gentle and brief cooking will m ...

contribute the sensations of smoothness and moistness to a sauce, and when used to precook the flour in a r ...

starch into a sauce. The first is to mix the starch with some cold water, so that the granul ...

over the large surface area of the meat pieces, and it has been precoated with the sautéing fat, which ...

disperse in a hot liquid, roux making has three other useful effects on the flour. First, it cooks out the ...

starch chains are modified in this way, and so the more roux is required to create a given thickness. ...

stock-based brown and white sauces, or espagnole and velouté; and the milk-based béchamel. Each of these relies ...

among the gelatin molecules, with a very smooth texture the result. Brown sauce is cooked for the longest time ...