winter squashes, and other starchy vegetables
owe their distinctive cooked texture to their
starch granules. In the raw vegetables, starch
granules are hard, closely packed,
microscopic agglomerations of starch
molecules, and give a chalky feeling when
chewed out of the cells. They begin to soften
at about the same temperature at which the
membrane proteins denature, the “gelation
range,” which in the potato is from 137–
150ºF/58–66ºC (it varies from plant to plant).
In this range the starch granules begin to
absorb water molecules, which disrupt their
compact structure, and the granules swell up
to many times their original size, forming a
soft gel, or sponge-like network of long chains
holding water in the pockets between chains.
The overall result is a tender but somewhat
dry texture, because the tissue moisture has
been soaked up into the starch. (Think of the
textural difference between cooked high-
starch potatoes and low-starch carrots.) In
barry
(Barry)
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