On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1162

they lend a cloudiness and distinct “cereal”
flavor to starch-water mixtures. Light that
passes right through a gelated mesh of pure
starch and water is scattered by tiny starchlipidorstarch-proteincomplexes,producinga
milky, impenetrable appearance. Grain
starches contain a high proportion of
moderately long amylose molecules that
readilyformanetworkwitheachother,andso
makesaucesthatquicklythickenandcongeal
whencooled.
WheatFlourWheatflourismadebygrinding
wheat grains and sieving the bran and germ
from the starch-rich endosperm(p. 528).
Wheat flour is only about 75% starch, and
includes about 10% by weight of protein,
mainly the insoluble gluten proteins. It’s
therefore a less efficient thickener than pure
cornstarchorpotatostarch;ittakesmoreflour
to obtain the same consistency. A common
rule of thumb is to use 1.5 times as much


flour as starch. Flour has a distinct wheat
flavor that cooks often transform by
precooking the flour before adding it to a
sauce (p. 617). The suspended particles of
gluten protein make flour-based sauces
especially opaque and give their surface a
matte appearance, unless the sauce is cooked
forhoursandskimmedtoremovethegluten.
Cornstarch Cornstarch is practically pure

starch and so a more efficient thickener than
flour. Cornstarch is manufactured by soaking
the whole maize grain, milling it coarsely to
remove the germ and hull, and grinding,
sieving, and centrifuging the remainder to
separate the seed proteins. The resulting
starch is washed, dried, and reground into a
fine powder consisting of single granules or
smallaggregates.Duringthiswetprocessing,
the starch granules absorb odors and develop
their own when their traces of lipids are
oxidized,socornstarchhasadistinctiveflavor