Thanks for that I learned all sorts of things.
cheers
Sandra
"Jerry Avins" <jya@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:VaKdnYeeot77w_XVnZ2dnUVZ_tfinZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Jerry Avins wrote:
>
> ...
>
>> Thanks, Val. I learned a good bit. Oat flour and rice (I have less
>> experience with it) flour have some of the nice keeping qualities of
>> arrowroot without the gloss. I'll review what McGee* has to say.
>>
>> Jerry
>> __________________________________
>> * "On Food and Cooking" ISBN 0-684-84328-5
>
> This is from McGee:
>
> *Flour and Cornstarch*
> Wheat flour is the thickener most often used in European and
American
> cooking, and cornstarch is preferred in Oriental cuisines, though it
> sometimes substitutes for Flour in Western recipes. cornstarch is
purified
> by soaking the whole grain, milling it coarsely to remove the germ and
> hull, and grinding, sieving, ans 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 small aggregates.
> Wheat starch will begin to thicken at a somewhat lower temperature
> than cornstarch. More im****tant, flour contains a significant amount of
> protein, about 10% by weight, while cornstarch is relatively pure and so
> thickens more efficiently. Cookbooks vary in their advice, with either
1.5
> or 2 tablespoons given as the equivalent of 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.
> Perhaps the most immediate difference between these two thickeners is a
> visual one. A flout sol will remain mostly opaque, while a
> cornstarch-based sauce becomes translucent and gives a glossy finish to
> foods it is poured on. Again, the key is flour proteins. gluten proteins
> are not soluble and, when mixed with water, form clumps that will not
> break up with cooking. Light that may pass right through the
starch-water
> mesh is scattered by the gluten bloblets, producing a milky,
impenetrable
> appearance. Some authorities consider translucence and gloss to be
> absolute virtues. The classic French brown sauce is clarified by
skimming
> the protein off the surface during hours of slow cooking, and Escoffier
as
> we have seen, looked forward to purified starches precisely to avoid
this
> long procedure. Others, however, think of flour sauces as less flashy,
> more honest and "traditional" than cornstarch-based sauces. This is
> clearly a matter of taste. Do remember, though, that the two materials
are
> not equal in thickening power, so that some juggling of pro****tions is
> necessary when substituting one for the other.
>
> *Root Starches*
> Both flour and cornstarch are made from seeds, and seed starches
have
> two general characteristics: short amylose chains, which means
relatively
> low thickening power for the amount used, and a noticeable "cereal"
taste.
> One of the reasons for making a roux, or cooking the flour in butter
> before adding it to the the liquid, is to get rid if this raw flavor.
the
> less commonly used root starches, on the other hand, have little taste
at
> all and relatively long amylose chains. That is, they do not need to be
> precooked and will do an equivalent amount of thickening in smaller
> quantities. Root starches also gelatinize at lower temperatures. Potato
> starch was the first commercially im****tant refined starch and is still
> quite popular in Europe. In the United States, arrowroot, refined from a
> West Indian plant /(Maranta arundinacea)/ is commonly available.The
> properties of root starches make them especially useful for last-minute
> corrections, as we shall see.
>
> (Next, there is a short section about tapioca and modified starches.)
>
> Jerry
> --
> Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
> ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
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