Not all cornstarches are created equal.For some uses, the best starch comes from the ugliest corn kernels Corn kernels are readily available in bulk throughout maize producing areas. The price as of 2005 is only about $1.80 per bushel in the U.S. This makes it the most inexpensive of all pelletized fuels. Pelletized fuels are used for corn and pellet stoves and furnaces. . Spurred by the demand for "all-natural" consumables and by microwave and other new food products, researchers at American Maize-Products Co. in Hammond, Ind., surveyed the starches produced by 300 types of corn. They found 10 with potential as sources of starches with new capabilities, says Robert B. Friedman, a chemist with the company, Cornstarch cornstarch, material made by pulverizing the ground, dried residue of corn grains after preparatory soaking and the removal of the embryo and the outer covering. It is used as laundry starch, in sizing paper, in making adhesives, and in cooking. is a polymer used as a thickener thick·en tr. & intr.v. thick·ened, thick·en·ing, thick·ens 1. To make or become thick or thicker: Thicken the sauce with cornstarch. The crowd thickened near the doorway. 2. and for making corn syrup corn syrup Sweet syrup produced by breaking down (hydrolyzing) cornstarch (a product of corn). Corn syrup contains dextrins, maltose, and dextrose and is used in baked goods, jelly and jam, and candy. . However, most people do not recognize that "a subtle difference in the starch's structure can give you major differences in the way these polymers behave," says Friedman. For example, gels made with Waxy-Shrunken starch (named for the appearance of the corn kernel) are much more translucent than most cornstarch-based gels. So a WaxyShrunken cornstarch could replace more expensive ingredients such as tapioca in recipes calling for clear gels, he says. Another, Dull-Waxy cornstarch, makes puddings stiffer and gives baked goods a "velvety vel·vet·y adj. vel·vet·i·er, vel·vet·i·est 1. Suggestive of the texture of velvet; soft and smooth: velvety skin. 2. texture," says his colleague Frances R. Katz. "It forms a better moisture-holding matrix," she adds, so cakes stay fresher longer. Typically, corn processors enhance those stiffening stiff·en tr. & intr.v. stiff·ened, stiff·en·ing, stiff·ens To make or become stiff or stiffer. stiff and water-holding properties in common cornstarch by crosslinking the starch polymers. In this chemical reaction, new connections form among starch molecules. Dull-Waxy starch needs no such modification, possibly because of more compact branching in the starch molecules, Friedman says. His company now sells Dull-Waxy cornstarch and eventually plans to introduce other specialty cornstarches, he adds. |
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