What is corn starch, chemical composition and beneficial properties. Potential harm when consumed. How it is cooked, what dishes it is added to. Interesting facts about corn starch. If corn starch is added to the baked goods, complete assimilation does not occur, which means that no fat layer is formed. Even with a strict diet, you can pamper yourself with baking with this ingredient 1-2 times every 10 days.
During lactation, it is useful to introduce cornstarch dishes into the diet 2-3 times a week, as soon as the baby is 3 months old. This will stabilize the production of breast milk and help fill it with nutrients.
Contraindications and harm of corn starch
In case of individual intolerance to corn, starch will have to be abandoned.
Harmful corn starch can cause:
- With diseases of the digestive tract in an acute form, regardless of the symptoms, since it changes the speed of peristalsis;
- At high temperatures, it slows down metabolic processes;
- With thrombophlebitis - increases blood clotting;
- With severe obesity.
However, if you are overweight, you should generally give up baked goods and dishes with a high carbohydrate content.
How to cook cornstarch
Making a corn thickener is a complex process.
Brief description of corn starch production:
- First, the grains are soaked and only after that they are threshed, and then they are thoroughly washed. Cleaning is carried out twice before grinding.
- Soaking is carried out in counter-current vats. To speed up fermentation, sulfur dioxide is added to the container. This stage takes up to 50 hours, the grains grow 2-3 times.
- Evaporation is carried out in a special multistage installation.
- The embryos of the grains are isolated in microcyclones. Then washed several times.
- The cleaned and dehydrated embryos are fed into a drying unit with steam pipes, where they are dried with constant rotation. Residual moisture content of 4% is allowed.
- Then the raw materials are fed to a special millstone type mill or to a crusher, where gluten and endosperm are extracted.
- Only then is the dehydrated fiber dried.
- The separation of gluten and starch is carried out in a separator.
In special installations, starch is cleaned, dehydrated and dried until fully cooked. After re-cleaning, the finished product can be packaged.
Important! When grinding and soaking grains at home, you can get finely ground corn flour with a high starch content, but the gelling properties will be low.
Cornstarch recipes
A thickener made from corn cobs makes sense to use in "light" low-calorie dishes with a delicate structure: biscuits, creams and drinks, for example, when cooking fruit drinks or liquid jelly from juices.
Delicious Cornstarch Recipes:
- Crystal dumplings … Mix together two types of starch - 180 g of wheat and 60 g of corn, pour 350 ml of boiling water in a thin stream and add a teaspoon of melted lard. Knead the dough, add some salt, wrap it in cling film and put it in the refrigerator. Ginger root, 50 g, grated, mixed with a handful of Sichuan pepper, add boiling water and set aside to infuse. Pass through a meat grinder 100 g of pork and 200 g of shrimp. Cut 150 g of shrimp into pieces and stir in the minced meat. Salted. Also, pour a teaspoon of sherry and sesame oil into it, add chopped green onions, a little sugar. It is brought to a homogeneous state with the help of a liquid in which ginger and pepper were infused. The dough is rolled out, dumplings are sculpted - it is better to choose the form of manti or envelopes. At the bottom of the steamer, spread a layer of carrots, cut into pieces, on top of the dumplings. Cooking - 5-7 minutes. Served with soy sauce.
- Cornstarch casserole … Soak 100 g of semolina in the same amount of milk so that it swells. Cottage cheese 5% fat, 700 g, rub through a sieve. Knead dough from semolina with milk and cottage cheese, stir in 4 yolks, 3 tablespoons of starch, 150 g of sugar, condensed milk, add some salt. To make the dough a homogeneous structure, add sour cream and beat everything thoroughly. For taste, you can add vanillin or cinnamon, add any pitted berries. The form is generously greased with butter, poured in the dough, baked for about 40-45 minutes in the oven at a temperature of 180 ° C.
- Cheesecakes with cornstarch … This recipe is recommended by renowned nutritionist Ducan. Knead a pack of cottage cheese with a fork, drive in an egg, a tablespoon of milk powder, corn starch, cocoa, sugar substitute and a teaspoon of baking powder. Curd cakes are formed and fried on both sides in a pan in sunflower oil.
- Pancakes with cornstarch … Beat 2 eggs with a whisk, adding sugar, 2 tablespoons, half a teaspoon of salt. Then milk is poured in a thin stream and only then a glass of cornstarch is poured in small portions. If you start with starch, lumps will appear. If the pan is non-stick, then pour 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil into the dough at the very end. Regular frying pan - 2 tablespoons of melted butter, then fried in sunflower.
- Gluten free pie … Knead the dough: grind 80 g of butter with powdered sugar, 90 g, drive in 3 yolks and milk, a tablespoon. Pour flour into the dishes - 100 g of rice, 60 g of corn, baking powder - half a teaspoon, salt. A biscuit is baked in a form covered with parchment at a temperature of 160 ° C. After 15 minutes, the cake is taken out and the middle is pressed. Mix the filling. Beat 1 yolk with 3 tablespoons of sugar, add corn starch - 60-70 g, pour in a glass of yogurt and 20 ml of vegetable oil. Mix everything well, you can use a blender. Separately interrupt 2 squirrels with 2 tablespoons of sugar in foam, gently spread into the filling with spoons and mix from bottom to top. The filling is poured onto the pie and baked. 15 minutes at a temperature of 170 ° C and the same amount of time is dried at 140 ° C. Before serving, you can decorate with any berries or fruits, pour over with chocolate.
When replacing cornstarch for potato, the portion recommended by the recipe should be doubled. Its gelling properties are lower.
Cornstarch Drink Recipes
Kissels from cornstarch are opaque, so it is better to cook them with milk.
Consider the most popular recipes:
- Lactic … Milk, 0.5 l, is poured into a saucepan so that it warms up to room temperature. Pour in 4 tablespoons of starch and stir until it dissolves. Another 0.5 liters of milk is heated to a boil and the starch solution is poured in a thin stream, stirring constantly. Sugar and vanilla are added to taste, they do not stop interfering so that the milk "does not run away". After 5-7 minutes, remove from heat and pour. Put 2 mint leaves in each serving.
- Pumpkin … Interrupt in mashed potatoes with a blender or grind 200 g of pumpkin in a meat grinder. Milk, 750 ml, halved. In one half of a cool drink, dissolve 2 tablespoons of starch, and the second is heated over a fire until boiling. Pour the cold part into the hot part in a thin stream, spread the pumpkin puree and add sugar to taste. Cook for 75-7 minutes. Serve warm.
- Chocolate … To get a rich taste, take 1 liter of milk and a bar of dark chocolate. Starch, 3 tbsp, dissolve according to the scheme already described. Pour grated chocolate into boiling milk and stir until it melts. Pour in the starch solution and cook, stirring occasionally. After 7 minutes, turn off and pour. Serve chilled.
Interesting facts about cornstarch
It may be surprising, but the main amount of corn starch is not used in food, but in the textile and paper industry. The property is widely used to transform under pressure into a thick paste that retains its elastic structure with insignificant temperature differences.
This paste is used to treat fabrics to increase strength. The threads are not only intertwined, but also glued together, which increases the margin of safety. Overalls for hot shop workers, loaders, miners and builders are made from such fabrics. To make 1 million meters of fabric, 120-250 tons of starch are required.
To increase the elasticity, thermoactive resins and thermoplastic are added to the starch. The resulting adhesive (surface adhesion enhancer) can be incorporated into building filler materials, plastics, and high viscosity adhesives. The adhesive increases the strength of board and drywall - 60% of the corn starch is used to make paper.
In the food industry, corn starch is used to thicken milk chocolate, to give the necessary "crunchiness" to wafer cups, for the manufacture of canned fish and stew. Sports nutrition manufacturers also prefer corn products.
Nutritionists and traditional healers are still arguing about the dangers and benefits of corn starch. For example, naturopaths believe that it is not worth introducing it into the diet, it only clogs the body. But it is almost impossible to fully provide the body with energy without starch. Complex carbohydrates are broken down for a long time, require energy consumption, and contribute to weight loss.
In cosmetology, corn starch is used as an ingredient in anti-aging and anti-inflammatory masks. For small children, powder can be used instead of talcum powder to prevent diaper rash.
Every housewife should have cornstarch at home. It can be used as a dry shampoo for people, to clean the hair of animals after a walk. The water-starch paste will help to polish the silver and remove streaks from the window panes. If you have cornstarch in your home, you can keep it clean and eat well without fear of gaining weight. Watch the video about corn starch:
