DIY liquid starch at home. How to make starch at home
Potato starch was once a rarity, but today it is used in almost every area of \u200b\u200bthe household. If, while living on your personal plot for a long time, you often use starch anywhere, then it will be easier and cheaper to make it from potatoes yourself than to go to the city every time to buy it. But in order to get it yourself, you need to know well how to make starch from potatoes, how to get it at home without too much trouble ... We will tell you about this.
Each summer resident, before sending the potato crop grown at the dacha for storage, sorts it, selecting only large and medium tubers. And what to do with small samples, which, due to their extremely small size, are not suitable not only for long-term storage, but even for immediate consumption? They can be used for processing so that, as a result of simple procedures, a fairly high-quality starch can be obtained from potatoes.
But before proceeding directly to cooking, you need to thoroughly clean the potato fines. To do this, we immerse it in a large container - for example, a basin - filled with water, and wash it using a brush with soft plastic bristles.
Since in the future the potatoes will be processed together with the peel, this step cannot be neglected; it is even better to repeat it several times for better cleaning. Well, now we turn directly to how to get starch from potatoes.
After the peeled tubers have dried out a little, they will need to be passed through a meat grinder, as already mentioned, along with the peel. Some people recommend simplifying the process by using a juicer instead of a meat grinder. If you decide to go this route, do not forget to remove the fine mesh sieve from the juicer.
Put the missed potatoes in a zinc bucket, pour water there, the volume of which should be 2 times the volume of the potato mass. After thoroughly mixing everything, let the solution brew, then filter, passing through a fine sieve.
The thick, which lingers in the sieve, put it back in the bucket and repeat the procedure. The water gradually flushes out starch particles from the potatoes, so the filtered water will be very rich in them. After performing this operation several times, the water must be collected in a separate container - better, a large saucepan, and left for 3-4 hours.
Now, the present solution must be freed from the upper layer of liquid, for which you need to carefully, trying not to shake the mixture, drain it until only the thickness remains in the pan. We dilute it again with clean water and leave it to infuse again.
To obtain a quality result, this procedure will have to be repeated several times, at least three times. A sign of readiness of starch is the colorlessness of the settled water. As soon as the water poured into the pan stops darkening, it means that the moment has come and, after draining the liquid, you will find a gray powder at the bottom. This will be the starch.
It remains only to dry it. To do this, put the wet powder on a plastic wrap, spread out in a dry place, sheltered from direct sunlight and drafts. You need to dry the starch from the potatoes until it becomes free-flowing. This usually takes about a week. Pour the finished starch into a jar and close it with a tight lid.
Subsequently, when soaking, the starch swells, forming a transparent mass. Therefore, it is used to prepare jelly, as well as to give the necessary thickness to soups and gravies. In addition, it can be added to cake cream to avoid "spreading". By the way, although the addition of starch does not improve the taste properties of food, it does not worsen them, moreover, it does not contain any harmful substances, therefore its use is absolutely safe.
Starch can be especially useful in dachas and country houses, where housewives often engage in various kinds of baking, adding starch to wheat flour when preparing dough.
Most often, starch is used when baking biscuits, in this case, its use allows you to remove excess moisture from the dough, making the biscuit light and airy. In the cuisine of Southeast Asia, starch is used to prepare hot dishes from meat, poultry, fish, etc. The Chinese mix starch with flour and spices, and then breaded the meat in it. This processing allows you to keep all the juices inside the product, so the meat is very tender.
Tired of going to supermarkets hoping to find and buy quality starch? Then you should learn how to cook it in your home kitchen. Moreover, frozen or withered and shriveled potatoes, which you just wanted to dispose of in the trash bin, are very suitable for its production. On average, from one bucket of potatoes, you will get about one and a half kilograms of homemade and high-quality starch. Interested in the prospect of learning how to make starch yourself? Then go ahead.
Starch preparation technology and step-by-step instructions
Step one. We take ordinary medium-sized potatoes, rinse thoroughly with water so that no dust and dirt remains, use a brush if necessary.
Step two. We peel the potatoes and three on a fine grater in a deep bowl, you can use a vegetable cutter, whatever you like.
Step three. Pour the resulting potato mass with cold water, so much so that the amount of the resulting mixture doubles and mix thoroughly. This is very important because it is at this moment that starch is released into the water.
Step four. At the next moment, we decant the water through a double layer of gauze into a separate enamel bowl, and fill our grated potatoes with water again in order to remove the remaining starch from it again. Then we dispose of the used potatoes in the trash can.
Step five. We give the strained liquid obtained a little time so that the starch settles to the bottom. When this happened, carefully drain the liquid, and fill the settled starch with water again and repeat the procedure. After the last wash, proceed to the next step.
Step six. In a heated oven to a temperature of 40 degrees, we send the starch poured onto a sheet of parchment on a baking sheet. You can simply let it dry naturally. As you wish. When the starch is crumbly, simply rub it with a rolling pin or with your hands to remove any lumps.
Pour the prepared, powdery mixture into a dry, hermetically sealed jar. Starch does not like moisture and foreign odors. Homemade starch is a little different from store-bought starch, it has a yellowish tint, and in the store we are used to buying white starch.
Thus, we got a natural product, without any chemical impurities, and this is much more beneficial for our health.
The household chemicals industry is replete with a variety of gadgets to help you tidy up your home and do your laundry effortlessly. These products include liquid starch.
Application
The main area of \u200b\u200bapplication of such products is washing. The presence of starchy compounds added to the rinse water makes the laundry harder, which is useful for curtains, curtains, collars and shirt cuffs. In addition, starched fabrics are easier to iron, wear less and look new. Dust settles on it less due to the fact that the fibers do not bristle, but are glued together.
Liquid starch can either be used after washing for rinsing in a solution, or applied with a spray gun directly during the heat treatment with an iron.
Popular cooking recipe
How to make liquid starch? It couldn't be easier. For such a solution, you will need any vegetable starch, but for white fabrics it is advisable to use corn starch, it has a lighter base and does not leave stains.
Cooking liquid starch. Ingredients:
- water - 1 liter (distilled or well-purified with a filter is suitable, it will have a lower hardness, and the substances contained in the starch will dissolve better);
- vegetable starch - 4 tablespoons;
- essential oil to taste and desire - 1 teaspoon.
It is necessary to thoroughly mix all the components together to obtain liquid starch. Now it is enough to drain the liquid into a container with a spray to get the product no worse than in the store, and you can start ironing.
Custard recipe
For thinner fabrics, it is better to make liquid starch in a brewed way, for this you will need the same ingredients, but the cooking process will be different.
The water is divided into equal parts, one part must be brought to a boil. In the second share of water, we dilute starch and essential oil to a homogeneous state, combine the solution and boiling water with each other, we get a kind of jelly-like mass, which is added to the water for rinsing or the fabric is immediately soaked in the resulting mixture. Such a recipe will help curtain fabrics, tulle, guipure, table napkins to acquire shine and hardness.
Additional use of starch
Do not think that starch is only suitable for washing, it can be used in the home in many situations.
If you apply liquid starch to the windows, let it dry and simply wipe off the remaining powder with a clean rag, then you can forget about buying special window cleaners.
Starch absorbs liquid well, which can help with coffee stains on any surface.
The powder is able to remove unpleasant odors from shoes.
With a sufficient amount of potatoes (even substandard ones), I advise you to cook starch at home. Unlike store counterparts, it does not contain chemical additives. The technology for producing potato starch is much simpler than it seems. The necessary equipment is in every kitchen, and besides the tubers, only clean water is required.
Any potato is suitable for preparing starch: large, small, only harvested, overwintered, frozen, wrinkled. If only not rotten and spoiled. The yield of the finished product depends on the starch content in the tubers themselves, for most varieties it is 14-20%. Average indicators - 1-1.5 kg of homemade starch is obtained from 1 bucket of potatoes.
Ingredients:
- potatoes - 10 kg;
- water - 30-35 liters.
The finished potato starch may have a yellowish tint, depending on the variety and the degree of soaking. This is normal, the factory counterpart is also not always white, it is “tinted” with chemicals.
Homemade Potato Starch Recipe
1. Wash tubers well with cold water, cut out rotten and spoiled parts. It is advisable to peel the skin. But if the potatoes are very small or there is no time, you do not need to peel, just then you will have to wash out the starch for a longer time so that it turns white.
2. Chop the potatoes on a fine grater or mince them. Pour water into a container with mashed potatoes (or on a grater) so that the mixture is always liquid. The potato will release starch into the water.
3. Pour mashed potatoes with 10 liters of water, stir.
4. Strain through a double-folded gauze or sieve. Squeeze the pulp (hard part) well. The pomace is no longer used.
5. Set aside the liquid for 10-15 minutes until the starch settles to the bottom. The water will be cloudy and white foam will appear on top, this is normal.
6. Gently drain the water, then add clean water (less is possible) and mix. Wait again until the starch settles.
First drain of water, starch is still dirty 7. Repeat the previous step 4-5 times until the water is clear and the starch at the bottom is clearly visible.
Fifth water change, starch turned white 8. Spread the raw starch in a thin layer on the foil, tray or baking sheet of the oven. 
9. Dry in the sun or in the oven at a temperature not exceeding 40 ° C. Crush lumps periodically.
Cook delicious transparent jelly from starchthat goes to the retail network does not always work, since the quality of the starch leaves much to be desired.
But it doesn't matter! After all get potato starchl at home is not difficult. Any potato is suitable for this purpose, even with damage. Different varieties of potatoes contain up to 25% starch.
To obtain 150 - 250 g of dry starch you will need: peeled potatoes - 2 kg, water - about 6 liters, a grater or juicer, a saucepan of 5 liters, a sieve and a deep bowl to separate the liquid from the cake, two cans of 3 liters each, a funnel, cotton filter cloth, 0.5 liter can for washing starch, sieve and bowl for drying starch. The time taken to extract the starch is about 3 hours, the drying time is from 3 to 5 days.
Pass the peeled potatoes through a juicer (in this case, the juice will need to be added to the cake) or grate. The finer the potato particles, the more complete the starch recovery will be, but the more difficulties will arise in the filtration process. The mass of the obtained dry starch, depending on the degree of grinding of the potatoes, ranges from 8% to 20% of the mass of the starting material.
Place the chopped crushed in a saucepan, pour cool water (2 - 3 l), mix thoroughly several times at intervals of 5 minutes.
Put the mixture in a sieve and strain into a deep bowl. Potato particles can get into the filtrate, which will be further removed by filtration through cotton cloth.
Filter the filtrate, which gradually becomes dark in color, into a three-liter jar through a funnel with a cotton cloth filter, which will retain small particles of potatoes, and leave to settle. If the cotton filter is clogged, which often happens when using a juicer, the liquid in the funnel can be gently mixed with a teaspoon. Soon, a layer of starch forms at the bottom of the can. After about 20 minutes, the settled solution can be carefully drained and used to extract the starch in further operations.
Return the cake from the sieve back to the pan and add a portion of water (fresh or settled - it does not matter). Repeat 3-4 times the operation, starting from item 2.
At the end of the procedure for extracting starch from potatoes, you need to wait 30 - 40 minutes until the starch settles to the bottom of the jar, and the cloudy water becomes almost transparent. Carefully drain the liquid from the solid sediment.
At the bottom of the jar, pour a glass of clean water, mix thoroughly so that all the sediment rises from the bottom, and transfer the mixture to a half-liter jar.
After the starch has completely settled to the bottom, drain the darkened water. Rinse the precipitate several more times with a fresh portion of water until the washing water becomes almost colorless.
Drain the liquid, leave the wet sediment at room temperature for several hours to dry and loosen it.
Transfer the starch to a sieve, put in a bowl and leave in the shade for 3 - 5 days until completely dry. Stir the starch several times a day. The bowl should be of a larger diameter than the sieve, as the starch will begin to pour through the sieve when drying and stirring. The sieve can be tilted to improve ventilation.
Transfer the dried starch to a jar with a lid.
Potato cake can be used to make potato pancakes. You just need to take into account that the potato mass is depleted in starch, therefore, the binding components - eggs and flour - need to be added more than usual.
To prepare for the potato mass left over after removing the starch, add 2 large onions, pre-chopped, 10 medium eggs, 2 full tbsp. tablespoons of flour, salt and spices to taste.
