How to use thickeners while you are cooking some favorite dish for your family? We often freak out while seeing that extra liquid slimming out from food made of gravy. Extra water left out in foods make it bland and drives away the spicy taste of it. To thicken consistency in your food, there are several options you can experiment with. In other words, there are good number of alternatives as thickening agent, which are frequently used in baking, preparing sauces, pickles, liquid taste-makers, curries of all flavors, creams, ice creams, and several other gravies. Let us discover some wonderful thickening agents widely used in cooking world over.

Savvy Tips on Use of Thickeners in cooking

• One of the most sought after flour which is used as thickener is arrowroot flour. You can make soups, gravies, and stews by having arrowroot as thickening base. It is useful in recovering the digestive ailments, used to cure diarrhea, and abdominal cramps. When talking of it texture, in general dry arrowroot flour is white, colorless, odorless powder. When used for culinary purpose, it is mixed slightly in tepid water. This forms thick, milky slurry. You can easily distinguish arrowroot essence by the mild smell which emits out of the culinary mixture. People, who are allergic to wheat flour, can be given arrowroot powder for health reasons.
• Corn starch is another commonly used in wide culinary preparations. It is the most usable and cheaply available thickening agent. The basic behind using cornstarch is that it should be mixed in cold water and then added to the recipe which is still hot and brewing.  Do not use luke warm water with corn starch as it tends to become clumpy with hot water and add trouble to your cooking. Corn starch is used in making thick gravies, and thus provides creamy texture to spicy foods.
• Here arrives the next thickener in row, potato starch. Starch of potato is mucilaginous in texture. It is their slimy feel which makes them a good thickening agent. Wizards in culinary profession make liberal use of potato starch in bakery and processing foods.
• Milk is safe, easily available, and wonderful thickener. You can dribble milk while preparing soups, sauces, noodles with gravy, curries, and while baking cookies and pies. It gives even consistency to food and easily dissolves in warm condition.
• Chick pea flour is used as both thickener and binding agent in Asian preparations. It is never used alone but is mixed with little water or curd for raising its thickening. You can use it while making fries of potato, and in curries of Indian variety.
• To thicken custards, eggs can be a good option as thickening agent. However, there can be some salmonella infection risks associated with the use of egg yolk; you can use white part of egg as thickener.
• Almond flour can be best substitute to other flours in being richer in nutrition. It can be used in stews, cakes, pies, jellies, and puddings. The sweet desserts and fruit mix gets comes out well prepared with almond flour thickening agent.

Gourmet food recipes can be created by using thickeners in cooking. You can try out your imagination and make some rich delicacies with thickeners, as there is always a room for experimentation!

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