Refining takes out the bran and the germ of the wheat kernel and keeps only the starchy endosperm; that is the whole difference between maida and atta. The two flours carry almost the same total carbohydrate, but the outer layers that refining removes hold most of the fiber. Reference tables put refined flour at 2.7…
Starch Gelatinization: Why Potato Turns Soft left one question open: whether cooling that same gelatinized starch back down changes its structure enough to affect the carb count. It does change the structure — the mechanism has a name, and it runs in the opposite direction from gelatinization. The question worth asking is whether that change…
Why Traditional Chaat Breaks Keto named the job potato is doing in a tikki or an aloo chaat: “starchy bulk and a specific soft, mashable texture that binds fillings and holds shape when formed into a patty.” What it didn’t explain is why raw potato is firm and cooked potato is soft in the first…
What Gluten Does named the mechanism gluten-free doughs are missing: gliadin and glutenin, two wheat proteins that get chemically welded together into an elastic, disulfide-bonded network when a dough is worked. Besan has neither protein — it isn’t wheat, so there’s no gliadin-glutenin pair to miss in the first place. And yet a pakora batter,…
Besan carries roughly 22 g of protein, 57 g of total carbohydrate and 10 g of dietary fiber per 100 g, by reference figures. Next to wheat flour measured the same way, chickpea flour has about twice the protein, somewhat more fiber and noticeably less carbohydrate. It’s a real step down in carbs from maida,…
Why Erythritol Tastes Cold left off on a specific split: erythritol delivers its menthol-adjacent chill only when its crystals are dissolving in the mouth, and a syrup where erythritol is already fully dissolved shouldn’t carry that note at all. That raises an obvious follow-up for anything syrupy — a tamarind-date chutney, a sweetened yogurt, a…
“How Net Carbs Are Actually Calculated” covered what happens to erythritol once it’s swallowed: absorbed in the small intestine, barely metabolized, mostly excreted unchanged, which is the reason the lab treats its net-carb contribution as close to zero. That’s the metabolic story. There’s a sensory story too, and it starts well before digestion — the…
“Flaxseed Mucilage: The Other Gel” traced the carbohydrate side of a flax egg — the two-polysaccharide mucilage that gives a flax-and-water slurry its gelling power before anything goes near heat. That’s only half of why flaxseed meal earns a place in a keto pakora batter. The other half is fat: flaxseed is famous as a…
Flaxseed mucilage is the gel that forms when ground flaxseed meets water, and it’s why a “flax egg” (ground flaxseed stirred into water) can bind a batter. It comes from the seed’s outermost layer and is made of two different polysaccharides (long chains of sugar units) plus some protein. That makes it a functional cousin…
In fathead dough, the mozzarella is doing the structural job gluten does in a wheat dough. Melting and working the cheese aligns its casein (the main milk protein) into parallel fibers that a hand can press and shape, and cooling sets that shape again. The almond flour and egg are carried along inside the cheese’s…