Secrets+to+Sauces+Success+by+Shen

Secrets to Sauce Success By, Tey Yi Shen Linked from @KARIM_APPLICATION ArticleSecrets to Sauce Success  1. Why is the base of a processed sauce or gravy considered most important part? What is it usually made of? The base formula has a strong influence on the sauce's overall sensory character - even its flavor. It is usually composed of hydrated starches at levels typically between 2% and 5%.  2. How does freezing affect viscosity of starch? And how can we overcome this problem? As the kinetic motion of starch molecules decreases in response to lowered temperatures, the molecules retrograde, reassociating with one another through hydrogen bonding. This squeezes water out of the solution - syneresis - and causes the sauce to set into a nonflowing gel. Furthermore, as ice crystals form, they essentially "stab" the starch granules, allowing even more syneresis to occur. Stabilized starches overcome this problem by using anionic groups - traditionally acetyl groups and, more recently, hydroxypropyl groups - dispersed throughout the granules. These create an ionic repulsion and steric hindrance that prevents the molecules from retrograding. With this modification, the sauces last through several freeze/thaw cycles without weeping.  3. Give an example which effect on hydrocolloids varies depend on the gum. "A pH lower than 3.5 combined with heat - about 1808F - will degrade some gums except xanthan gum."  4. What are the gums which exhibit pseudoplasticity ? Guar gums and locust bean gums. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text1;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text1;">5. What makes CMC and xanthan and guar gums ideal for instant applications? <span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Side chains and substitutions along the backbones of CMC and xanthan and guar gums prevent them from associating too closely. As a result, they dissolve readily at low temperatures, which makes them ideal for instant applications. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text1;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text1;">6. Why <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text1;">locust bean gum and kappa carrageenan are not that preferably in sauce making? <span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">T <span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">he low degree of substitution along the backbones of locust bean gum and kappa carrageenan make them soluble solely at high temperatures. Such gums also are more likely to form gels, which might be unwanted in a sauce. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text1;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text1;">7. What type of gum work well in frozen sauces and gravies? Why? <span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">All gums - xanthan, locust bean, guar and CMC, for example - improve freeze/thaw stability due to their water-binding properties and ability to retard the formation of large ice crystals. <span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">