get tangled up and slow the motion of other
molecules and granules in the vicinity. A
small number of very long amylose
molecules, then, will do the job of more but
shorter amylose molecules, and of many more
bushy amylopectins. For this reason, the cook
can obtain the same degree of thickening from
a smaller amount of long-amylose potato
starch than from moderate-amylose wheat and
corn starches.
Two kinds of starch. Starch molecules are
chains made up of hundreds or thousands of
glucose molecules bonded together. They take
two forms: straight chains of amylose (left),
and branched chains of amylopectin (right). A