Cooking Starch

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

For a long time in Russia, starch was prepared in every home independently. For these purposes, they used potatoes grown on their plots. The technology is so simple to implement that anyone can master it

In the nineties, a shortage of the most essential foods forced our family to start producing starch at home. In the fall, after harvesting and sorting potatoes by size and purpose, the fines, not suitable for food, went for processing. From 10 liters of starting material, 1-1.5 kg of the finished product was obtained. It was enough for several years of use.

Cooking technology

The tubers are thoroughly washed by hand several times. Together with the peel, the raw mass is passed through a meat grinder with a coarse sieve. (If desired, potatoes can be grated on a coarse grater.) To avoid darkening of the pulp, it is immediately immersed in prepared clean water.

The slurry is stirred in a saucepan for several hours to maximize the precipitation of the starch. Then the pulp with water is filtered through a sieve in which a two-layer piece of gauze is laid.

The resulting mixture is left for 2 hours. Starch particles settle to the bottom. The liquid becomes transparent, it is carefully drained. The contaminated top layer is removed. Add pure water, mix. The procedure is repeated several times.

Wet starch requires drying for further storage. Spread a sheet of parchment paper or a piece of cloth on a baking sheet. Spread the resulting mass, distribute over the surface in an even layer. Dry in the open air, stirring occasionally. I do not recommend using the oven. At a temperature of 50 degrees, the wet powder turns into jelly.

The finished product has a free-flowing consistency; when rubbed with fingers, it emits a characteristic creak. It is crushed with a crush or rolled with a rolling pin so that there are no lumps. Pour into a jar under a nylon lid. Store in a dry place.

To obtain a cleaner starch, peel off the skin from the tubers using only the pulp. The rest of the process is the same as described above. The finished product turns out to be slightly yellowish - this is a natural color of excellent quality.

The older generation remembers the time when there was not enough food, they had to save on everything. My grandfather went through the entire war, so he knows the value of each product. He never even threw away the skin from the potatoes. He put everything into action. For several days I accumulated the peel left over from cooking for family members. I packed it in plastic bags and kept it in the refrigerator. Then he passed it through a meat grinder, squeezing out the starch. I boiled the pulp, added it to the mash and fed the pigs. Thus, one and the same potato was used three times: for human food, for starch excretion, for animal feed.

The use of starch in everyday life

My grandmother was engaged in needlework all her life. Knitted tablecloths, napkins, scribbled curtains. I myself saw a Soviet-style school uniform. For beauty, snow-white collars and cuffs tied by grandmother's hands were sewn to it. They were special, not like everyone else.

A prerequisite for whiteness and a certain rigidity is the starching of knitted products. Such things wrinkle less, stay clean longer.

There are 2 processing methods: hot and cold.

For hot use, pre-cook the paste. To do this, 1-1, 5 teaspoons of starch are diluted with a small amount of cold water. The resulting suspension is poured into boiling water in a thin stream, stirring constantly. A clear solution with a volume of 1 liter is formed. Things are lowered into it, mixed thoroughly. Then it is wrung out and dried in a flattened form on a table covered with a white cloth.

The second method is to dissolve 50 grams of starch in 1 liter of cold water. The resulting milky suspension is left to swell for 2 hours. After this time, it is stirred again. Prepared products are dipped into the solution. Rinse well in a starch mixture. Squeeze out, wrap in a clean cloth.

After drying, straighten things on the table, wipe with a damp cloth to remove excess starch. Iron on medium heat through cheesecloth.

The starch preparation technology does not take much time. But the result is an environmentally friendly product, without the addition of bleaching agents.