Konjac flour is made from the tuber of the konjac plant. It is a gum that can thicken liquids and stabilize emulsions; in alkaline mixtures it can also gel. It is often combined with other ingredients to improve their thickening and gelling.
It has been used in Japanese cooking for centuries and is used to make noodles as well as puddings and pastes. It is also unusual that it thickens at high temperatures instead of low ones.
Typically a 0.3-1.25% ratio by weight of Konjac will be used as a thickening agent.
Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Getting Started covers many of the popular modernist techniques such as gelling, spherification, and foams. It also explores modernist ingredients like agar, sodium alginate, tapioca maltodextrin, and xanthan gum.
This article is by me, Jason Logsdon. I'm an adventurous home cook and professional blogger who loves to try new things, especially when it comes to cooking. I've explored everything from sous vide and whipping siphons to pressure cookers and blow torches; created foams, gels and spheres; made barrel aged cocktails and brewed beer. I have also written 10 cookbooks on modernist cooking and sous vide and I run the AmazingFoodMadeEasy.com website.
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