SC - Flour as Thickener

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/4/98 9:42:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time, alm4 at cornell.edu
writes:

<< it sounds too much like using
 flour to me, and I remember my mother always telling me using flour to
 thicken  can make something taste awful.  >>

Without sounding disrespectful to your dear mother, I would suggest that if
she used flour and it tasted 'awful' then she was probably not cooking it long
enough after the flour was added. Using cornstarch and arrowroot as a
thickener only needs a minute more or less to cook and thicken. Flour needs
several minutes to cook and loose it's raw taste. 

Another problem may have been the amount of flour she used when she had her
'bad' experience; as well as the pre-preperation of the thickener. Flour is
used at approximately 1 tblsp per cup of liquid. You should also make a thin
paste of the flour and water, milk or broth making sure you have no lSlowly
pour the mixture in to the boiling pan of liquid. REDUCE the heat to a simmer
and leave, stirring frequenbtly until thickened.. 

Personally , I prefer using flour when thickening meat gravies and use
cornstarch for puddings and fruit dishes on most occasions..I have never been
a fan of arrowroot because I find it makes for a poor thickener when compared
to the others. It's main advantage is that you can add it to the pan in it's
dry state without worrying about lumps in your sauce. ;-) Rice flour is
workable and I always use it in period recipes that call for it.Each type of
thickener has it's place. :-)

A side thought on the 'cornflour' discussion. I went to Fresh Life after work
today and bought both cornstarch and cornflour. Cornflour is as fine as
regular flour but yellower. Cornstarch is silky and definitely white. It is
apparent to me at least that cornstarch and cornflour are the maize
equivalents of wheat starch and wheat flour. They are definietely  2 very
different products. Sunday I will be experimenting with both to observe just
what differences their are in the cooking arena.

Ras
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