become individual gels, or water-containing
meshworks of long molecules. This range can
be recognized by the fact that the initially
cloudy suspension of granules suddenly
becomes more translucent. The individual
starch molecules become less closely packed
together and don’t deflect as many light rays,
and so the mixture becomes clearer.
Thickening: The Granules Leak Starch
Depending on how concentrated the starch
granules are to begin with, the starch-water
mixture may noticeably thicken at various
points during their swelling and gelation.
Most sauces are rather dilute (less than 5%
starch by weight) and thicken during gelation,
when the mixture begins to become
translucent. They reach their greatest
thickness after the gelated granules begin to
leak amylose and amylopectin molecules into
the surrounding liquid. The long amylose
molecules form something like a three-