Thickening Agents

Cornflour, potato flour and tapioca flour are the most commonly used thickeners in Chinese cooking. As potato and tapioca flours are more gelatinous than cornflour and will therefore hold a sauce together better, they are preferable to cornflour. But because they are gelatinous, regard must be paid to the quantity, lest the sauce becomes abhorrently gluey. Arrowroot, lotus root flour, water chestnut flour and mung bean flour are also used, though less commonly, for specific dishes.