Cornstarch

Cornstarch is on occasion the great offender in Chinese cooking in the West—creating the gloppy sauces for which Cantonese-American restaurant cooking and inexperienced Chinese cooks are often known. Used in the right measure, it performs at least three important jobs in a Chinese kitchen. One, it binds the liquid ingredients of a marinade to each other and to the meat, poultry, or fish being marinated. Two, it protects fragile food against the heat of the pan or the oil, often creating a crispy coating around it. Third (and least used in my own kitchen), cornstarch thickens a sauce so that it clings lightly to the food, a feat it can achieve agreeably enough if it is used in moderate amounts.