the.com/cornstarch
Powdered corn that thickens sauces and settles arguments between liquid and solid.
means A fine white powder milled from corn kernels, used to thicken liquids, coat foods, or stand in for talcum.
from Straightforward compound word: 'corn' plus 'starch,' from Old English stercan/stearc meaning stiff or strong, since starch literally stiffens cloth and, in this case, gravy. The product itself rose with 19th-century industrial corn milling in the United States, where corn was abundant and wheat starch was the old standby being replaced.
- science party trick
- mixed with water becomes a non-newtonian fluid, oobleck
- thickening power
- twice as strong as flour, use half as much
- heat rule
- loses thickening power if boiled too long
- hidden job
- keeps shredded cheese and powdered sugar from clumping