Cornflour
Flavour Profile
Neutral and starchy. It has very little taste of its own, which makes it the perfect silent partner in a recipe. It provides body and texture without masking the flavours of your other ingredients.
Health Benefits
Cornflour is basically pure starch. It's an energy source, sure, but mostly it's there to thicken things up without adding any flavour of its own. It's naturally gluten-free if that's what you're after.
Buying Tips
Check the label to ensure it is 100% maize. In some countries, wheaten cornflour exists, which behaves differently and contains gluten. If you are cooking for someone with a gluten intolerance, pure maize cornflour is your best friend.
Storage
Keep it in a cool, dry place in an airtight container. It is highly sensitive to moisture and will clump or spoil if it gets damp. Stored correctly, it lasts almost indefinitely.
Cooking Uses
The go-to for thickening sauces, gravies and custards. Always mix it with a small amount of cold liquid first to create a slurry. It is also the secret to ultra-crispy fried chicken or tofu when used as a coating, as it absorbs less oil than wheat flour.
Forkin Food Theory
Cornflour is a temperature-dependent thickener.
While wheat flour starts thickening at lower temperatures, cornflour needs to reach a full simmer—about 95°C—before its starch granules fully swell and burst to create that smooth, glossy finish.
Once it hits that peak, stop. Overcooking a cornflour-thickened sauce can actually cause the starch bonds to break down, resulting in a sauce that suddenly turns thin and watery again.
Wild & Wonderful
In the UK and AU, cornflour means the fine white starch used for thickening sauces. In the US, the same product is called cornstarch — and "cornflour" there means yellow milled corn (polenta / cornmeal).
This catches people out constantly with American recipes.
Mix cornflour with cold liquid before adding it to anything hot. Tip it straight into a hot sauce and you get lumps you'll never get rid of.
It loses thickening power if you boil it hard for too long. Add at the end, simmer briefly, done.