Raw flour, as its name implies, is raw flour, which is usually said in Cantonese cuisine and Hong Kong and Taiwan cuisine. The function of raw flour is gelatinization, sizing and thickening during cooking. Generally corn starch, sweet potato starch (sweet potato powder) and potato starch powder (potato powder) are used. Yes, they are all kinds of starches, and some are made of raw flour. As long as it is used for basic cooking, you can buy raw flour, without distinguishing which material is raw flour.
So what is starch?
Chemically speaking, starch is polymerized from glucose molecules. The chemical general formula of starch is (C6H 10O5) n, which is the most common storage form of carbohydrates in cells and one of the basic ways for human body to obtain glucose. Botanically speaking, starch is a nutrient stored in plants, stored in seeds and tubers, and the starch content in various plants is very high. So why are most plants that can be made into starch seeds and roots? From the catering industry, starch, also known as starch, is mainly the function of raw flour: sizing, thickening, hanging paste and so on. It can also be used to bake cold noodles and desserts.
Generally speaking, people who rarely classify and name raw flour can hardly see the food packaging of "corn flour", "cassava flour" and "potato flour". There may be, but it is rare.
Most of us see corn starch, cassava flour, potato starch, wheat starch, sweet potato starch, mung bean starch, pea starch and so on. And the name of the raw material will be added before the starch. Of course, although different plant starches can be hung, sized and thickened, there are still some differences in cooking, otherwise they will not be classified.
The role of starch in cooking
Let's popularize hanging paste, sizing and thickening first:
Hanging paste refers to adding dry starch (sometimes water starch) to raw materials before cooking, usually a thick layer, such as sweet and sour pork tenderloin, fried pork chops, etc., forming a thick starch layer on the surface of food, which makes the frying process golden and crisp, making the dishes look fresh and tender.