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
Fat content of milk as "nonfat" milk, due to USDA regulations stating that any food with less than ½ gram of fat per serving can be labelled "fat free". In the U.S. and Canada, a blended mixture of half cream and half milk is called half and half. Half and half is usually sold in smaller packages and used for creaming coffee and similar uses. Three main varieties of milk by fat content are sold in the UK, "skimmed", "semi-skimmed" and "whole milk". Semi-skimmed is by far the most popular variety, accounting for 63% of all milk sales. Whole milk follows with 27% and