How to make homemade starch. Treatment with potato starch at home

Its cleaning, sorting, drying and bookmarking for the winter on the farm always leaves a certain amount of “substandard” - small, cut or off-grade tubers. This potato, of course, will go to feed livestock and poultry. But at home there are children who love kissels. And isn’t it better to process such a “non-standard” into starch. Believe me, it's easy. Just wait for a warm day so you don't get cold fiddling with cold water.

To obtain starch from potatoes, the latter is first of all sorted out, freeing from debris and rotten tubers, damaged tubers are cut and cleaned. Next, the potatoes are washed very thoroughly in three to four waters. Remember, the cleaner the potatoes are washed, the cleaner and better the starch will turn out.

Washed potatoes, without drying, are crushed using a potato grater, which can sometimes be purchased at a hardware store. And if this grater turns out to be electric, then consider that you are very lucky.

By the way, a potato grater is not very difficult to make yourself. To do this, you will have to turn a shaft of wood with hardwood (ash, maple, pear, birch) on a lathe. We drill a hole in the center of the shaft, into which we insert (tightly) a metal rod (axis) with a handle bent at the end (Fig. 1). We attach a grater made of stainless steel sheet or tinned sheet 0.5 ... 0.7 mm thick to this shaft from the outside. How to make a grater from a sheet of tin? Yes, very easy! We take a nail with a 4-sided sharpened end and punch holes in the tin with it, placing the workpiece on the smooth end of the block of wood. Remember that the nail should be deepened to the same depth, and so that the metal at the exit of the nail tip unfolds in the form of a rosette with four petals of equal height (Fig. 2, a). Holes in the sheet are punched in a checkerboard pattern (Fig. 2, b).

A grater made in this way is upholstered (with teeth outward, of course) on the surface of the shaft, using small cloves for this. Instead of a homemade grater, you can fasten segments of saws with fine teeth along the length of the shaft. (A shaft of this design is usually found on industrial potato graters.)

The grater shaft is fixed in an open container so that the distance between the bottom of the container and the teeth of the grater is no more than 0.1 ... 0.3 mm (Fig. 3). Thus, in one or two days you can easily make a simple potato grater that will last a long time. By the way, it is very easy to turn this manual potato grater into a mechanical one by adapting an electric motor for this.

How thinly you grate the potatoes largely depends on the yield of starch. And the greater the rotational speed of the potato grater shaft, the better the “grinding” will be. To the grater, it is necessary to make the simplest device in the form of a lid, which would be convenient to press the potatoes to the rotating roller. When rubbing potatoes, do not spare water, which not only rinses the teeth of the grater from the sticky potato mass, but also dilutes the potato gruel at the same time. The crushed gruel should be freed as soon as possible from large particles (pulp), which begin to actively darken in the air. Therefore, the resulting slurry is immediately filtered through a sieve, while washing it with water. Starch together with water (starch milk) will pass through the sieve (it has holes with a diameter of 1 ... 1.5 mm), and the pulp, washed from starch, will remain on the sieve. In the future, the pulp will be used to feed livestock and poultry.

Starch milk also contains cell sap, dissolved impurities, as well as undissolved particles of fiber, protein, etc. It is better to get rid of them, as they will spoil the color, taste and smell of the finished product. To do this, dilute starch milk with clean cold water and pour it into the so-called settling vessel, which should be low and wide.

Since the specific gravity of raw starch is quite large (1.65 g / cm3), it accumulates at the bottom of the vessel before other components of starch milk. Only sand precipitates faster than starch, but we have already washed the potatoes from it. The settled water is carefully drained, after which at the bottom of the vessel you will see porcelain white starch.

Pour the starch again with clean cold water, mix thoroughly, after settling again carefully drain the water. Repeat this operation 3…5 times. The cleaner you wash the starch, the tastier it will be and the better it will keep.

After washing, lay the starch in a layer 1-1.5 mm thick on a tray or on a clean table to dry. This process is quite lengthy and lasts for several days or even two to three weeks. You also have to constantly stir the starch. The latter is occasionally allowed to be taken out into the sun in calm weather, trying not to get dust, leaves and other small debris on it. During the drying process, protect the starch from mice, ants, cockroaches. They will not so much eat starch as pollute it with their excrement. But we do not recommend drying starch on the stove, since raw starch quickly clumps when heated, turning into a jelly-like mass. So it is better to dry the starch in a clean, dry, cool and ventilated area, preferably in the dark.

Every good housewife has a supply of groceries. The shelves in any kitchen are lined with jars and bags of cereals, sugar, flour, salt and butter. In addition, housewives always keep a supply of starch. This is a universal product that is used not only for culinary purposes, but also for various household needs.

How to make starch at home? This is a fairly simple process, although laborious. The main thing is to find the right raw material.

Potato starch

Traditionally in Russian cooking, potato starch is used. For a long time, jelly was cooked from it - sweet and sour and very useful for the stomach. But it can be used in almost any dish that needs to be thickened. Starch is added to air meringue, berry fillings in pies, to various sauces and other dishes.

In addition, it is used as the basis for homemade anti-wrinkle masks. From potato starch, you can make your own safe children's plasticine, tinted with juice of carrots, beets and spinach. And if the baby bites off a piece of such a "dough", then it's okay.

Potato starch is also used in folk medicine- for the treatment of rashes and itching.

Raw material

How to make potato starch at home? There is nothing difficult in this. You can use any potato for raw materials - large, small, frozen, and even good areas from rotten tubers.

A good choice would be medium tubers of potato varieties intended for long storage. They are more starchy and the yield will be higher.

How to cook

How to make starch at home? The procedure will be as follows:

• Wash tubers. Young potatoes from the garden can not be peeled. Old tubers need to cut off the peel. For rotten ones, remove all bad areas.
• Shred any potato convenient way. Best on a grater. Mechanical graters, meat grinders and food processors are ideal for this.
• Pour the potato gruel with cold clean water in a ratio of 1:1.
• Thoroughly mix the resulting substance. During this process, the starch is washed out of the tubers and floats in suspension in the water.
• Then you need to strain the liquid through a sieve to remove the remaining potatoes.

• The liquid must be defended until it brightens, and all the sediment is at the bottom. The white layer of sediment is the starch. If it is dirty in color, then you need to drain the water from above so as not to disturb the powder at the bottom, and fill it with fresh clean water. Then let it rest again. Repeat the process until the starch is pure.
• Drain the last water. Take out the starch, wring it out a little and put it on paper to dry.
• Dry for several days, periodically loosening and stirring the resulting product.

The resulting powder will have slightly yellow. This is fine. When produced on an industrial scale, it turns out exactly the same, but it is slightly blued to make it more attractive to buyers.

How to make starch at home quickly? It can be done. If starch is needed for use in a dish, then it can be used wet. That is, as soon as the sediment settles, it can be immediately put into action.

If you need a dry product, then its drying can be accelerated by forced heating in the oven. However, care must be taken that the temperature does not rise above 40 ⁰С, otherwise the starch will be spoiled.

Corn starch

Corn starch is very different in properties from potato starch. And if any recipe says that you need to add corn starch, then you can not replace it with potato starch, even in a smaller volume.

There are three types of corn starch - the highest, the first and amylopectin grade. In addition, modified starch is used in various products. This is a natural product, specially processed so that it has changed any properties.

How to make starch from corn at home? It's not as easy to make as it is with potatoes. But with due diligence it is possible.

How to make it

How to make corn starch at home? First of all, you need to take the right raw materials. To make good starch, you need either matured fresh corn kernels or very hard, like popcorn.

Fresh beans are easier to work with. They are soft, easy to grind into gruel. The problem is that in most of our country such grains do not have time to ripen. They remain in the stage of milky maturity, and it is problematic to obtain starch from them.

Hard dense corn kernels are a more suitable raw material. But they are harder to work with. They must either be crushed and then soaked. Or do the opposite, which is much easier. However, it should be remembered that corn swells very slowly.

How to make starch from corn at home? The procedure is exactly the same as when working with potatoes. However, it should be understood that when using a small amount of raw materials, the yield of the final product will be small.

On an industrial scale, corn starch is obtained by soaking crushed grains in a weak solution of sulfuric acid, followed by a multi-stage purification of the precipitate. This cannot be done at home.

Liquid starch for laundry

How to make liquid starch at home? It's very simple. It is only necessary to dilute the dry powder in water in the right proportions. To prepare it, you should take:

• corn starch - 0.5 cups;
• cold water - 2 cups;
• essential oil lavender, bergamot or rose - 3-4 drops.

It is necessary to pour a small part of the water and mix the powder in it so that no lumps remain. The remaining water must be brought to a boil and pour the diluted starch into it in a thin stream, without ceasing to stir. After the mixture is poured, you need to keep on fire for another minute, without ceasing to interfere. Then you can remove, add fragrant essential oil and cool.

Such starch is used when ironing collars and cuffs on blouses and shirts, or individual parts of clothing are soaked in it after rinsing.

Potato starch is an indispensable ingredient for making drinks, desserts, oriental sweets, sauces, soups and even pastries. And although the product can be purchased in almost every supermarket or shop, its quality does not always meet our expectations and needs. Often the recommended amount of starch does not make the jelly as thick as it needs to be. And every time we experience difficulties with the calculation of the amount of the required product.

Potato starch at home is of high quality and does not contain any additives or impurities. You can make many different dishes from it without worrying about the quality of the finished product.

To create natural starch, you can use tubers of any variety, color and shape. Only young potatoes are not suitable - they still have few starchy substances. This is a good option for "utilizing" small fruits of irregular shape. If you are making starch from small potatoes, you don't have to peel the tubers, just rinse them thoroughly under water (using a hard washcloth).

After the workpiece becomes dry and crumbly, it must be sifted through a sieve and placed in a dry container. Such homemade starch can be successfully stored long time so you can prepare a large number of thickener for future use.

Ingredients

• potatoes - 1 kg;
• water - 2 l.

Cooking

To make potato starch, use any number of tubers, but not less than 1 kg. We clean the fruits from the skin.

We grind potatoes by any method comfortable for ourselves - on a grater, meat grinder, combine or blender.

We spread the thick mass on a linen napkin or gauze and filter the workpiece. Leave the liquid potato mixture for several hours. During this period, the starch will separate from the liquid and settle to the bottom.

Carefully drain the liquid and leave a brownish precipitate. We pour clean water. Repeat the whole process a few more times until the liquid becomes clear.

After the next standing, pour out the water. Leave starch at the bottom.

Use a spatula to scrape off the white, wet powder from the bottom of the bowl. From this amount, about 40 g of powder can be obtained.

We spread it on a napkin, distributing it around the entire perimeter. We are waiting for the starch to dry.

Sift the mass through a sieve or grind with a regular mashed potatoes. We spread the powder in a prepared dry and clean container. Use homemade potato starch as needed.

Cooking Tips

Of course, it will need suitable raw materials, and it would be foolish to buy potatoes and then use them to make such homemade starch. So this recipe is more suitable for those who have their own potatoes in the cellar.

For starch, fresh potatoes are not needed at all. Here, even a little frostbitten is suitable (which happens in winter), or, as now, already strongly sprouted. After all, it’s already the end of July and the old potatoes have already sprouted and wrinkled so much that you don’t want to eat them.

Moreover, new crop potatoes have already appeared in the markets and shops, and someone has already quietly begun to dig their own. But the old one, so as not to throw it away, can be processed in this way and you will get your own, homemade starch, certainly without chemistry, if you cook it for yourself.

Making potato starch at home

The technology, I must say, does not differ in particular complexity, everything is quite simple, but, of course, it will work all the same, it will take a little. We will make starch based on a bucket of potatoes, so it is easier to navigate the output of the finished product.

As I already said, you can take any potato, if it is with sprouts, then they will need to be picked, and, of course, wash the potatoes well. Then we clean it, and rub it on any medium grater. You can use a food processor to grind potatoes.

All the mass that you have turned out is quickly washed. Precisely quickly, in order to preserve the starch we need in the potatoes, and not wash it with water.

Next, we need a sieve, or a sieve. Put gauze on their bottom, and fold it in two layers (one is still not enough). We put a sieve on a bucket and put chopped potatoes in portions.

Thus, you will need to rinse all that potato mass that you chopped. Let the water settle, and after 2 or three hours, you simply drain it, and only the starch we need will remain at the bottom. If the starch is gray, then it can be poured again with clean water.

If you decide to prepare starch for storage, then it will definitely need to be dried. This should be done when you drain the water for the last time.

Then the starch itself is laid out in a thin layer on a cloth or paper and let it dry like that, but it must be stirred after three hours, each time until it is completely dry.

Drying starch in high heat should not be. If the temperature during drying is more than 40 degrees, then your wet starch can easily turn into a paste.

When your starch dries, you sift it, pour it into a suitable container and you can put it away for storage.

Such homemade starch can be stored for quite a long time. That the starch has dried up, you can determine simply by touch. I think everyone imagines how pleasantly it crunches when you knead it with your fingers. Or you can roll it with a rolling pin, the sound will also make it clear dry starch or not.

In addition, you should know that the starch that you get will not be the same color as the one we are used to seeing in stores. It will be slightly yellowish. And in factories it also turns out like this, but to make it look more attractive, it is simply blued a little.

But we need pure starch, without chemicals, so there is no need to blue it at all.

From a large bucket (this is 12 liters), about one and a half liters of starch comes out. Of course, there is more starch in young potatoes, so it is better to do it in the fall, when you have just dug up the potatoes. After all, not all tubers are suitable for storage. There are damaged or small ones, so they can be put into such processing.

In addition, it is possible to make liquid from such starch again. Suppose it is necessary to starch a napkin (who does this). Starch is simply diluted in water. Its concentration may vary.

That's all the tricks for making homemade starch for today. So, if you have old or substandard potatoes and plus some free time, you can extract starch in this way.

Cook delicious transparent jelly from starch, which enters the retail network, is not always obtained, since the quality of the starch leaves much to be desired.

But it doesn't matter! After all get POTATO STARCH. l at home is not difficult. For this purpose, any potato is suitable, 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 5-liter saucepan, a sieve and a deep bowl to separate the liquid from the cake, two 3-liter cans, a funnel, cotton filter cloth, 0.5 liter jar for washing starch, sieve and bowl for drying starch. The time spent on starch extraction 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 grated. The finer the potato particles, the more complete the extraction of starch from it will be, but the more difficulties will arise in the filtration process. The mass of the resulting dry starch, depending on the degree of potato grinding, ranges from 8% to 20% of the mass of the starting material.

Place the crushed in a saucepan, pour cool water (2 - 3 l), mix thoroughly several times with an interval of 5 minutes.

Put the mixture in a sieve and strain into a deep bowl. Potato particles can get into the filtrate, which will later be removed by filtering through a cotton cloth.

The filtrate, which gradually acquires a dark color, is filtered 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 becomes 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 jar. After about 20 minutes, the settled solution can be carefully drained and used to extract starch in further operations.

Return the cake from the sieve to the pan again and pour a portion of water (fresh or settled - it does not matter). Repeat the operation 3-4 times, starting from step 2.

Upon completion 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 thick 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. Wash the precipitate several more times with fresh water until the wash water becomes almost colorless.

Drain the liquid, leave the wet sediment at room temperature for several hours so that it dries up and can be loosened.

Transfer the starch to a sieve for, 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 larger in diameter than the sieve, as the starch will begin to pour through the sieve as it dries and mixes. To improve ventilation, the sieve can be tilted.

Transfer the dried starch to a jar with a lid.

Potato pulp can be used to make potato pancakes. Just keep in mind that the potato mass is depleted in starch, so the binding components - eggs and flour - need to be added more than usual.

To prepare for the potato mass left after the extraction of the starch, add 2 large onions, pre-chopped, 10 medium eggs, 2 full tbsp. tablespoons flour, salt and spices to taste.