Cooking In European cooking, a mixture of butter and flour called a roux is used to thicken liquids to make stews or sauces. In Asian cooking, a similar effect is obtained from a mixture of rice or corn starch and water. These techniques rely on the properties of starches to create simpler mucilaginous saccharides during cooking, which causes the familiar thickening of sauces. This thickening will break down, however, under additional heat. Types of fat include vegetable oils, animal products such as butter and lard, as well as fats from grains, including corn and flax oils. Fats are used in a
Mesquite flour flour ("pinole"). This flour is rich in dietary fiber (25%) and protein (13%), and it is low in fat (around 3%) . It also contains significant quantities of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc, and the amino acid lysine. Mesquite flour Mesquite flour is made from the dried and ground pods of the mesquite (some "Prosopis" spp.), a tree that grows throughout Mexico and the southwestern US in arid climates. The flour made from the long, beige-colored seedpods has a sweet, slightly nutty flavor and can be used in a wide variety of applications. It has a high-protein, low-glycemic content and