Flour Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Pour the cold water slowly onto the flour, stirring well.
Stir in the boiling water and let the paste boil until it reaches the desired thickness.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Starch and gluten form the body of the paste, thickening it as it cooks.
- Cold water
- Mixing it in slowly with the flour hydrates the starch evenly and prevents lumps.
- Boiling water
- Heat gelatinizes the flour's starch, causing the paste to thicken.
The step that matters
Adding the boiling water to the flour mixture. Starch only thickens fully once it is heated and gelatinized, so the paste must actually reach a boil and be stirred to avoid lumps and an uneven, underset texture.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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