cornflour

Everyday

1. Cornflour is a fine white powder made from maize (corn), used in cooking to make sauces, soups and gravy thicker. tree →
2. In the US, «corn flour» can also mean flour ground from whole corn, which is different. tree →

In the lessons

In cooking at home and school, a spoon of cornflour mixed with cold water thickens a sauce. In science lessons, cornflour mixed with water makes «oobleck», a strange slime that is hard when you hit it and runny when you pour it — a non-Newtonian fluid. Recipes from the US will say «cornstarch».

Examples

• Mix the cornflour with cold water before adding it to the gravy. tree →
• Cornflour makes the sauce thick and shiny. tree →
• We made slime with cornflour and water. tree →
• The oobleck went hard when I punched it. tree →
• US recipes call cornflour «cornstarch». tree →
• Cornflour is gluten-free. tree →
• Dust the table with cornflour so the icing does not stick. tree →

Note

Uncountable: «a tablespoon of cornflour». Trap: UK «cornflour» = US «cornstarch»; US «cornmeal» is something else (yellow and gritty). Always mix it with cold water first, or it goes lumpy.