First of all, what is raw flour? Raw flour is starch, and starch is not necessarily raw flour.

Raw flour is only called raw flour by its name, which is usually mentioned in Cantonese cuisine recipes and in Hongkong and Taiwan Province cuisine. The function of raw flour is to paste, size and thicken when cooking. Generally, corn starch, sweet potato starch (sweet potato powder) and potato starch powder (potato powder) are used. Yes, they are all kinds of starch, and they are also used as raw flour. As long as you use it for basic cooking, you can buy raw flour, and you don't have to distinguish which raw flour is made of.

so what is starch?

Chemically speaking, starch is formed by the polymerization of glucose molecules, and the chemical general formula of starch is (C6H1O5) N. It 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 all kinds of plants is high. So why are most plants that can be made into starch seeds and rhizomes? From the catering industry, starch, also known as starch, is mainly the function of raw flour: sizing, thickening, hanging paste, etc., and can also be used to bake cold noodles and desserts.

generally speaking, it is difficult to see the food packaging of raw corn flour, raw cassava flour and raw potato flour, which are rarely classified and named. There may be, but it is rare.

We mostly see corn starch, tapioca flour, potato starch, wheat starch, sweet potato starch, mung bean starch, pea starch, etc., and the names of ingredients and raw materials are always added to 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 is to add dry starch (sometimes water starch) to the raw materials before cooking, which is usually a thick layer, such as sweet and sour pork tenderloin and fried pork chops. A thick starch layer is formed on the surface of food, which becomes golden and crisp during frying, making the dishes look tender outside.