On Food and Cooking

flavors the sauce has. Thickening agents also
actively reduce the effectiveness of the flavor
molecules in the sauce. They bind some of
those molecules so that our palate never
senses them, and they slow their movement
from the sauce into our taste buds or nasal
passages. Because aroma molecules tend to be
more fat soluble than water soluble, fat in a
sauce hangs onto aroma molecules and
decreases aromatic intensity. Amylose starch
molecules trap aroma molecules (the aroma
molecules in turn make the starch molecules
more likely to bond to each other into light-
scattering, milky aggregates). And wheat flour
binds more sodium than pure starches, so
flour-thickened preparations require more
added salt than starch-thickened sauces.
As a general rule, then, a thin sauce will
have a more intense and immediate flavor
than the same sauce with thickeners added.
But the thickened sauce will release its flavor
more gradually and persistently. Each effect