- Farm Bell Recipes - https://farmbellrecipes.com -

Cookery 101: Thickeners

Posted By CindyP On July 10, 2011 @ 1:03 am In Blog,Cookery 101,Ingredients | 13 Comments

Thickeners are used in many places in our every day cooking life–gravies, puddings, sauces, pie fillings.

The most common type of thickener is a starch of some kind–it swells up in the liquid. They’re very popular because they don’t add much flavor and add no fat. They all pretty much look alike–a white powder–but they’re not all created equal. They all have different tendencies, but many can be substituted for another in a pinch.

To avoid lumps, mix the starch with an equal amount of cold liquid until it forms a paste, then whisk it into the hot liquid you’re trying to thicken. Once the thickener is added, cook it briefly to remove the starchy flavor. Don’t overcook–liquids thickened with some starches will thin again if cooked too long or at too high a temperature.

  • Cornstarch
  • Gives your sauce or gravy a low-gloss, cloudy affect. It’s the best choice for thickening dairy foods, but loses it’s potency with acidic foods and should be avoided. It also doesn’t work well when frozen, it turns spongy. Cornstarch and prolonged heat don’t go along well together, either–it starts to break back down.

    1 tablespoon (mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water) will thicken 1 cup of hot liquid.

  • Arrowroot
  • Gives a high-gloss transparent affect to your foods. It has a more neutral flavor over cornstarch or tapioca, so it is a good choice for delicate sauces. It also handles freezing and acidic foods well, but when mixed with dairy, it turns slimy.

    1 tablespoon (mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water) will thicken 1 cup of hot liquid. Mix arrowroot and cold water together, then whisk into hot liquid for 30 seconds.

  • Tapioca
  • Gives food a high-gloss transparent affect. It thickens food quickly and at a low temperature–it’s great if you need to “fix” your sauce just before serving.

    Instant or quick-cooking tapioca grains don’t dissolve completely when cooked, so you end up with tiny gelatinous balls in your food. If that isn’t something that appeals to you for thickening, just whir the tapioca in a spice grinder or blender.

    Regular tapioca has small beads and is used to make tapioca pudding.

  • ClearJel
  • Is a modified cornstarch that works well with acidic ingredients, tolerates high temperatures, doesn’t cause thickened foods to “weep” during storage, and doesn’t begin thickening until the liquid begins to cool allowing heat to penetrate all the way through without breaking down.

    Because of all of these advantages, it is the only thickener approved by the USDA for home-canning. It makes a beautiful canned pie filling. It can also be used in place of pectin and some of the sugar (or all) when making jams. (It’s also cheaper than pectin or sugar!) The refrigerator life isn’t as long as with pectin and sugar, so a smaller jar is usually used.

    It does not handle freezing well at all. It can be used for thickening your everyday sauces and gravies, but it is a little bit more expensive than cornstarch or arrowroot.

    It can be ordered online (the best price I’ve found is Barry Farms) or found in Amish/Mennonite stores, but it isn’t available yet in grocery stores.

    1 tablespoon (mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water) thickens 1 cup of liquid.

  • Instant ClearJel
  • Is a modified cornstarch that is cold-swelling, meaning it thickens instantly without heat and doubly thickens when heated.

    It handles acidic food well, stands up well to the freezer and to heat (to some degree). It’s especially good for thickening foods without cooking–puddings, juices, dairy, desserts, dressing, syrups, sauces, freezer jams, pre-frozen pies that are later baked.

    It is not the same thing as regular ClearJel, don’t use it for canning–the make up of it allows it to thicken only the one time, not for an extended processing time, it will break down.

    To avoid clumping, mix with other dry ingredients then add to the liquid. Use a blender, stick blender, food processor, or mixer to blend it all together.

    It can be ordered online (the best price I’ve found is Barry Farms) or found in Amish/Mennonite stores, but it isn’t available yet in grocery stores.

    1 tablespoon thickens 1 cup of liquid.

  • Flour
  • Is one of the starches used to thicken gravies that usually contains fat as a Roux or Beurre ManiĆ©, both use the same amount of fat and flour, but just done differently.

    Roux–ratio is 1 tablespoon fat : 1 tablespoon flour : 1 cup liquid. Melt the fat, stir in the flour and brown until your desired color. Remove from heat and whisk in liquid; return to heat and bring to a boil; cover and simmer for a couple minutes.

    Beurre ManiĆ©–use same amounts of butter and flour. Soften the butter so it can be mixed into the flour. Drop by nuggets into the liquid and bring to a boil. It will thicken as the flour melts and blends in.

    Flour is also used for thickening fresh pies going into the oven.

Mom always used a heavily shaken flour/water mixture (like the cornstarch method, not the roux method) and whisked it into boiling broth to make her gravy. It always worked great for her. I can not make it taste good…it tastes like flour, no matter how much I cook it.

I use cornstarch for most of my every day thickening jobs, ClearJel for canning, and Instant ClearJel for making instant pudding and fat-free desserts.

What thickeners are in your pantry?


Article printed from Farm Bell Recipes: https://farmbellrecipes.com

URL to article: https://farmbellrecipes.com/cookery-101-thickeners/

Copyright © 2010-2011. All rights reserved.