In our daily life, in addition to the most basic oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar, there are some condiments are also essential, such as starch, which is usually used to thicken the dishes with.

What is thickening?

The thickening is the starch and water blend in the dishes will be nearly mature when it is poured into the soup, so that the dishes glossy, smooth, tender a technique. Thickening is one of the must-have techniques to make dishes more colorful and flavorful. If you want to learn how to thicken, the first step is to understand starch. Thickening of raw materials is mainly starch, because starch is insoluble in water, and water heated to 60 degrees, will be pasted into a colloidal solution, so that the soup dishes mixed together. Thickening to use a variety of starch, mainly: potato starch, sweet potato starch, corn starch, wheat starch, mung bean starch, in addition to diamond horn starch, water chestnut starch, lotus root starch, pea starch and so on. But the most commonly used in the family is the following five:

1, potato starch

Potato starch is also known as potato starch, thickening the viscosity of the most adequate, delicate texture, crystal clear, shiny, so is currently the most used thickening starch, potato starch can also be used in the production of Western-style bread or cake to increase the sense of wetness. I usually use potato starch for thickening dishes.

2, corn starch

Corn starch is also one of the more commonly used starch in the family. Corn starch is white and slightly yellowish, which contains a small amount of fat and protein, its strong moisture absorption, high viscosity, but the thickening effect is not as good as potato starch, will produce a white precipitate.

The potato starch thickened soup will become thin after cooling, while the corn starch thickened soup will not have any change after cooling.

3, tapioca starch

is refined from cassava, white texture, transparent powder, used for thickening or sizing are very good.

4, wheat starch

Wheat starch, also known as clarified powder, white but less glossy, the quality is not as good as potato starch, thickening is prone to precipitation. However, as the production of some pasta, but has a very important role, can make the finished product color crystal, taste strong.

5-pea starch

Sticky enough, little water absorption. The color is white and glossy, in addition to being used for thickening, it is also a good material for making vermicelli and cold noodles, but families generally use it very little.

There are many kinds of thickening, the simplest is to mix water and starch as gravy, if the gravy also add some rice wine, soy sauce, vinegar and other seasonings, it is called to gravy. If the thickness of the gravy to divide, thickening the main thin gravy, thick gravy two categories, which is also the most commonly used two categories.

Thin gravy: thin gravy concentration is thin, after thickening, if it is a large or whole dish, part of the soup hangs on the dish, part of the dish from the dish into the plate, if it is a fine dish, the soup will be as thin as the rice soup, generally used for braising, burning dishes.

Thick gravy: thick gravy refers to the amount of starch and water or other liquid seasoning less, gravy concentration of a high Chin. This gravy thickening after the dish soup is very thick, all wrapped in the surface of the raw materials, after serving in the plate, soup and vegetables are still not separated, not flow juice, and after eating the dish dish is basically no juice, generally used for slippery, slippery, stewing method of cooking dishes.

In addition to the thin and thick points, the thickening of juice and pouring juice two methods.

The juice: when the dishes are close to maturity, will be adjusted to the gravy dripping into the pot, while dripping, while using a spatula to gently push, so that it is uniform, or a hand holding the pot slowly shaking, a hand holding the gravy evenly dripping into the side of the dripping side of the shaking, to the soup and the dishes are completely integrated with each other.

Pouring juice: If the volume of the dishes is too large to be easily stirred in the pot, you can serve the ingredients when they are almost ripe, pour the thickened gravy into the pot and heat it up, and then pour the gravy evenly over the dishes when the gravy is thickened.

Thickening of a few points:

The ratio of starch and water should be appropriate

General ratio of 1:1-5 according to the selection of thick gravy and thin gravy of this ratio can be adjusted appropriately, but can not be too much of a difference, if the starch is more than the water is less, starch particles in the water is very difficult to fully dissolve, and thus the emergence of powder pimples, if the starch is less than the water is more than the dishes will make the If the starch is less and the water is more, it will make the dish more juicy and affect the maturity speed and taste of the dish.

Master the time of thickening.

Stir-fried dishes require a crisp and refreshing taste smooth and soft, gravy is generally due to the dishes on the ripe when poured into the gravy into the gravy into too early easy to make the gravy scorched, gravy into the gravy too late it is easy to make the dishes heat for a long time, so as to lose the crispy texture, burned, braised, steak dishes is best to thicken the dishes when fully ripe, otherwise it will affect the soft and smooth and crunchy texture.

After thickening the sauce, you can pour in the flavored oil.

After thickening and then dripping into a variety of different flavored oils, there is a role in increasing the aroma and freshness of the color, these oils mainly include chicken oil, sesame oil, pepper oil, chili oil, etc., the family with the general more sesame oil. However, seasoning oil must be in the thickening before pouring, and can not add too much, too much fat will hinder the thickening of the ingredients of the package so that the loss of thickening of the significance, in addition to pouring into the seasoning oil, can not be flipped too quickly to avoid oil, thickening separation.

4, to determine the flavor in the thickening.

If you thicken the gravy first, the gravy will become sticky, and the material will not be able to enter the material itself, which will affect the taste of the dish. However, if you add salt, vinegar, soy sauce, etc. to the gravy, you can thicken the sauce directly.

5, control the thickening of the fire.

Generally speaking, the gravy into the pot should be a big fire to quickly make the temperature of the soup in the pot to increase, and always let it keep the boiling state, so as to make the gravy color is relatively bright.

References:

2. Thickening Baidu Encyclopedia web link

3. "Skill" thickening web link

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