ISO Wheat Starch

[Bart]

I'm trying to make shrimp dumplings (har how) with the translucent wrappers and the recipe calls for wheat starch.  I can't find it anywhere including H Mart (Centerville location).

Does anyone know where to find it?

Does it go by another name?

Thanks!

[lperry]

It's what is left over after they make wheat gluten items, and I'm pretty sure you can get it at Super H in the enormous aisle of various and sundry starches.  It may be worth a phone call to them or to Grand Mart. 

[Bart]

I found potato starch, yam starch, corn starch, tapioca starch, bean starch (?) and a few others I don't recall, but no wheat starch.  They also had about a dozen different types of flour (wheat flour, rice flour"¦"¦), but no wheat starch.

[Pat]

Wheat starch seems like the kind of thing that might be easier to come by wholesale rather than retail.  And try Amazon.

[zoramargolis]

Is wheat starch the same as wheat gluten? If so, I think I have seen it in the Bob's Red mill line.

[Bart]

I don't think so.  I just did a quick search and here's what I found:

http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/34264/wheat-flour-vs-wheat-gluten

These are two related, but different products.

Gluten is protein that is formed from two pre-cursor proteins, glutanin and gliaden, found in wheat flour in the presence of water and under enzymatic activity.

It forms resilient stretchable networks which give yeast raised bread its structure.

Whole wheat flour is... well... whole wheat berries, ground up. It is mostly starch, but contains all glutenin, gliaden, and the necessary enzyme to create gluten, which forms naturally when the flour is moistened, if given long enough or kneaded to accelerate the process. However, even a very "strong" flour (bread flour) will have no more than about 10%-15% percent protein by weight, so it cannot form more than that amount of gluten.

Vital wheat gluten is essentially concentrated, powdered gluten, without the rest of the parts of the wheat berry.

They are not freely interchangeable, as the gluten does not bring the starch, bran, and other components that flour does. You may, in specific recipes, be able to use just gluten, but not in the general case. And even if substitution is possible, you would have to determine the correct ratio to achieve the desired outcome.

Using vital wheat gluten in lieu of whole wheat flour, in most applications, will either fail completely (no thickening from starch, as in a gravy), or be dense and rubbery, and practically unpalatable (as in a bread).

[lperry]

It's not the same.  The starch is what is left over after they take the gluten out of the flour to make wheat gluten items like seitan.  Theoretically, if it were clean enough, people with gluten issues could eat it, but I doubt anyone would risk it.

I'm surprised about Super H - maybe because it's a Korean market?  How about Great Wall?

[Rovers2000]

It looks to be available on Amazon if you can wait the two days for it.

[Bart]

Thanks folks.

I didn't even know Great Wall existed until now (!) so I'll check it out if I'm in the area.

But yeah, for the time being, Amazon may be the way to go"¦"¦I planned to make these dumplings a week ago for NYE so a couple more days won't kill me!

[TheMatt]

Just in case anyone is wondering, or happens by this thread in the future, Great Wall does indeed have wheat starch. It's in aisle 5 near the front of the store. 

[Bart]

I made a very random discovery of wheat starch at the Middle Eastern grocery in the same strip mall as the Peking Gourmet Inn in Bailey's Crossroads.  Just to the right of PGI"¦"¦one or two doors down.