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Potato or corn starch
Also called cornstarch, potato starch, cornflour, 전분
A fine white starch. In Australia and Britain, cornflour is maize starch (US cornstarch); Korean frying often prefers potato starch. Both thicken sauces and crisp coatings. This is not cornmeal.
Origin
Industrial wet-milling of maize, and a parallel potato-starch industry in East Asia and Europe. The Korean fried-chicken crust that shatters is usually potato starch, labelled 전분.
Flavour
None if it is cooked out. Raw starch tastes chalky. Potato starch fries a little cleaner and glassier than maize.
How it is made
Starch is washed from the grain or tuber, separated, dried and milled to a silk powder. It has almost no protein, which is why it cannot replace wheat flour in a dough.
How to use it
For a slurry, mix starch with cold water first, then stir into a simmering sauce at the end; boiling it for ages turns the gloss slimy. Potato starch is the better dust for yangnyeom and dakgangjeong — a thin even coat, rested, then fried hot. Maize cornflour also sets custards. Do not dump dry powder into a bubbling pot. A 1:1 mix with wheat flour gives a lighter batter. Measure lightly; too much turns a sauce to jelly as it cools.
Storage
Dry cupboard, airtight. It keeps for years if it stays dry.
Recipes using it
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