Batters and Thickening Agent
2 min readBatters and Thickening Agent
Batters are used to coat ingredients before cooking. They help the food to retain freshness, flavour and moisture. They will also give the cooked food a crisp outside and a tender, soft inside. Batters help retain the nutrients in food that would otherwise be lost in the cooking process. Finally, batters help the food retain its shape where it might have been broken up or shrunken during cooking. The primary ingredients in batters are: egg, wheat flour, cornflour paste (see overleaf), baking powder, and breadcrumbs.
Thickening Agent is a thin paste made of starch (cornflour, water chestnut flour or potato flour, etc) and water. When added to food shortly before it is done it will thicken the gravy or sauce. It serves to: 1. Bring the seasonings and the ingredients together to heighten the flavours. 2. Make the surface of the cooked dish smooth and soft, and make the colour bright – in other words, it improves the appearance of the dish. 3. Create a transparent coating around the food, keeping the heat in the food so that it doesn’t get cold too quickly. 4. As in some soup dishes heavier ingredients tend to sink to the bottom, the thickening agent makes the ingredients remain more evenly distributed in the soup. The commonest thickening agent used particularly in Chinese restaurants is Cornflour Paste. There are two types: Thick paste is made by mixing 1 part cornflour with about 1.2 parts of cold water; Thin paste is made by blending 1 part cornflour with 2 parts water. Thick paste is really like a batter – it is used to coat the ingredients, leaving no liquid in the dish. Thin paste is a glazing paste, which is added to the gravy left in the wok after the food is removed; this is then heated and made smooth, and poured over the food as a sauce.
