Guar gum is a thickening agent that's grown primarily in India and Pakistan. The plants are harvested after the monsoon season and the seeds are dried and separated, then ground to a powder. When used in the kitchen, guar gum can replace corn starch and other gluten-heavy thickeners. Guar gum also has the advantage of not requiring any heat to thicken. It can be used in sauces, salad dressings and a variety of other recipes that call for thickening.
Instructions
1. Examine the original recipe and what it calls for. If the original recipe uses corn starch, you should use roughly an eighth of the amount in guar gum. If you're using it as a thickening agent in ice cream use no more than half a percent of the base weight of the liquid in the mixture. Different cooks will use different amounts, but the amount of guar gum you use should always be less than the thickener it's replacing, unless it's replacing xanthan gum, which is used roughly in the same amount as guar gum.
2. Mix in the guar gum at the same stage of the recipe as you would mix in the thickener it's replacing. If you're not sure of the amount you should be using then start with a quarter of a teaspoon for every cup of the original thickener. If that doesn't thicken the recipe enough then add more in quarter-teaspoon amounts until you're satisfied with the thickness.
3. Complete the recipe. Once you've finished, taste what you've made to see how well the guar gum thickened. If you feel you used too much, adjust the use of the gum accordingly next time.
Tags: amount guar, corn starch, original recipe, thickener replacing, thickening agent