On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 872

alcohol-solubletypes.Inordinarywater,these
proteinsdon’tdissolve;insteadtheybondto
eachotherandclumpupintoacompactmass.
Wheat,rice,corn,andbarleykernelsdevelop
achewyconsistencyinpartbecausetheir
insolubleproteinsclumptogetherinthegrain
duringcookingandformastickycomplex
withthestarchgranules.
SeedStarches:OrderlyandDisorderly

Allthegrainsandlegumescontaina
substantialamountofstarch,enoughthatit
playsasignificantroleinthetextureofthe
cookedseedsandtheirproducts.Itcanmake
onegrainvarietybehaveverydifferentlyfrom
anothervarietyofthesamegrain.
Two Kinds of Starch Molecules The parent
plant lays down starch molecules in
microscopic, solid granules that fill the cells
of the seed storage tissue.All starch consists


ofchainsofindividualmoleculesofthesugar
called glucose (p. 804). But there are two
different kinds of starch molecules in starch
granules, and they behave very differently.
Amylose molecules are made from around
1,000 glucose sugars, and are mainly one
extendedchain,withjustafewlongbranches.
Amylopectin molecules are made from 5,000
to 20,000 sugars and have hundreds of short

branches.Amylose is thus a relatively small,
simple molecule that can easily settle into
compact, orderly, tightly bonded clusters,
while amylopectin is a large, bushy, bulky
moleculethatdoesn’tclustereasilyortightly.
Both amylose and amylopectin are packed
together in the raw starch granule, in
proportions that depend on the kind and
variety of seed. Legume starch granules are
30% or more amylose, and wheat, barley,
maize,andlong-grainricegranulesarearound
20%. Short-grain rice granules contain about
15% amylose, while “sticky” rice starch