Thickening Starch-Bound Sauces

Starch-bound sauces, due to the varying degree of stability of the starch used, should be thickened just before serving; they present no major timing problem for the cook since they thicken within seconds.

Cornstarch, potato starch, and arrowroot are usually called pure starches since they contain very little or no proteins at all. The opacity of a starch-bound sauce reflects the amount of protein, the starch contains. For example, cornstarch contains more proteins than potato starch and arrowroot and as a result produces more stable but also more opaque sauces than potato starch or arrowroot.