What is cornstarch used in cooking

The food preparation process is referred to as cooking, which is the process of preparing food from raw to cooked. There are various ingredients used in cooking, and people in each region will choose specific cooking methods based on local products. However, some ingredients are indispensable in any cooking. For example, cornstarch is a commonly used cooking ingredient. Let’s take a look at what cornstarch is used in cooking? I hope you all understand.

Cornstarch is a term that often appears in recipes. It is mostly used for thickening. The cornstarch used in mainland China is potato starch, the cornstarch used in Hong Kong is corn starch, and the starch commonly used in Taiwan is tapioca starch, which is made from potatoes or cassava. In Chinese cooking, cornstarch is used not only to thicken food to give it a smooth texture, but is also often used as a marinade to soften meat. Cornstarch has a wide range of uses. It can be used as a seasoning for cooking, to make jelly, and to make pancakes. It is mainly used for starching and thickening when processing meat ingredients.

In Chinese cuisine, it refers to starch, which is used for thickening and coating when cooking. There are many kinds of starch, such as sweet potato starch, water bean starch used in Sichuan cuisine, and corn starch. Cornstarch is starch, which can come in many types, generally referring to corn starch.

Types of cornstarch:

Corn starch

Corn starch is also called corn flour, corn starch, corn powder, and raw flour. In some places, it is called bean powder (this is indeed rare). It is starch extracted from corn kernels - the starch with the largest supply, but its performance is not as good as potato starch. In Hong Kong, what is called cornstarch is mainly corn starch.

Cornstarch

That is, raw potato starch and potato starch - the most common and most stable thickening starch used in households, called cornstarch in Taiwan. It is characterized by strong viscosity, fine texture, white color, and better gloss than mung bean starch, but poor water absorption.

Sweet potato flour

Sweet potato starch - also called sweet potato starch and yam starch, is characterized by strong water absorption ability, but poor viscosity, dullness, and dark red with black color. It is a powder made from sweet potato starch, etc. Generally, sweet potato powder is granular and comes in two types: coarse and fine. It is usually better to buy coarse sweet potato powder at home. Sweet potato starch, like cornstarch, will become viscous when dissolved in water and heated. However, the viscosity of sweet potato starch is higher than that of cornstarch. Therefore, sweet potato starch is rarely used in thickening Chinese dishes because the viscosity is more difficult to control.