Arrowroot starch

Arrow-root

What it is

It gelatinises around 65 °C, a good fifteen degrees below cornstarch, which is why a sauce thickened with it stays clear and glossy instead of going opaque and pasty. The name is usually explained by the Arawak, who are said to have laid the crushed root on arrow wounds, though it may come from nothing more than their word aru-aru.

In the kitchen

Slurry it in cold liquid, add it off the heat at the very end, and stop the moment it thickens: held at a boil it thins back out and cannot be rescued. Around 15 g per litre for a glaze, and unlike cornstarch it comes through freezing without weeping.

Goes with

Cream Lemon Redcurrant Apricot Coconut milk Egg

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