On Food and Cooking

and cook them in a container to give them
form and solidity.
Batters are fluid because they include two
to four times more water than doughs. The
water disperses the gluten proteins so widely
that they form only a very loose, fluid
network. When we cook a batter, the starch
granules absorb much of the water, swell,
gelate, leak amylose, stick to each other, and
thus turn the fluid into a solid but tender,
moist structure. The gluten proteins play a
secondary structural role, providing an
underlying cohesiveness that prevents the
food from being crumbly. But if the gluten is
overdeveloped, it makes the food elastic and
chewy. Batters often contain eggs, and the egg
proteins also contribute a nonelastic solidity
when they coagulate in the cooking heat. Fluid
batters can’t retain much of the gas slowly
evolved by yeast, and are usually leavened
either chemically, or else mechanically, by
beating air into the batter or its components.