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I became interested in the production of starch when I visited my grandmother in the summer. Every year after the potato harvest, my grandmother collects the rejected tubers and makes starch at home.
I was wondering - what is starch? What is starch used for? Can I make starch from potatoes myself at home?
Object of study: potatoes growing in the village of Ura-Guba and Vg. Junction of the Tula region.
Subject of research: starch obtained from potatoes.
Purpose of the work:- get starch at home.
To achieve the goal you need to decide tasks:
collect and process information about starch;
explore ways to produce starch at home;
extract starch from potatoes at home;
analyze the results obtained;
consider the use of starch.
Relevance: In our age of physical inactivity, the problem is very relevant excess weight, nutritionists “blame” starch for all the troubles, which is why they start the diet by limiting potatoes. However, potatoes cannot be completely excluded from the diet, because the starch contained in it is an important source of energy for the body
Research hypothesis: I assume that the amount of starch in the same potato variety is the same and does not depend on the weather and growing conditions.
Research methods:
Literature Review
Observation
Experiment
Analysis and synthesis of results
Practical significance The work consists of processing and systematizing information on the research topic and obtaining starch at home.
Starch - interpretation, meaning, meaning
IN "Big Encyclopedic Dictionary" the scientific definition of starch is given: “ STARCH - (word from Polish, from Polish krochmal, German Kraftmehl ) reserve carbohydrate of plants; consists of two polysaccharides - amylose and amylopectin, formed by glucose residues. Accumulates in the form of grains, mainly in the cells of seeds, bulbs, tubers, as well as in leaves and stems. Starch is the main part of the most important food products: flour (75-80%), potatoes (25%) and others. Starch and its derivatives are used in the production of paper, textiles, adhesives, foundries and other industries, as well as in the pharmaceutical industry.”
The interpretation of the word starch in « Explanatory dictionary living Great Russian language" by V. I. Dal : « STARCH- purely mealy part of seeds, especially grain plants; extracted from grains, in the form of a white powder, mainly from wheat and potatoes; due to its stickiness, it is used to stiffen and iron linen, which is why it is also called grieving (to grieve). To starch linen, to grieve, to make it tough, soaking it in starch, soaking it in boiled and sometimes raw starch solution: We only starch fine linen. The lady starches a lot, loves a fluffy, starched dress. Starch (sorrow) starch - starching process, starch maker (starch woman) - one who makes starch, starch bowl - a saucepan for cooking starch and paste.”
“Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language” edited by D. N. Ushakov helped clarify the biological process of the appearance of starch in plants: “ STARCH- a carbohydrate of a special composition, formed in the form of tiny grains in the green parts of plants from carbon dioxide in the air under the influence of light (chemical, bot.). A product made from such grains of various plants is used in the food, chemical and textile industries, and in washing clothes.”
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, defines starch as follows: “A tasteless powder white, insoluble in cold water. Under a microscope it can be seen that it is a granular powder; When starch powder is squeezed in your hand, it produces a characteristic “creaking” noise caused by the friction of the particles.
IN hot water swells (dissolves), forming a viscous solution - a paste; with iodine solution forms an inclusion compound that is blue in color.”
So I did the following conclusions:
The starch in the tuber is in the form of small grains inside the cell;
Starch is an important substance for potatoes, and is necessary for it as a source of energy for growth and life support.
In the future, we need to find out which potatoes contain more starch: those grown in our natural conditions or in middle lane Russia. To do this, you need to extract the starch from the tubers.
Defined a plan work on the production and research of starch:
1) isolate starch from potato tubers;
2) experimentally with the help alcohol solution iodine to prove that the resulting substance is starch;
3) show practical ways to use starch in everyday life and creativity.
In the distant past
The production of starch has been known since ancient times. According to a number of ancient writers, wheat starch was obtained on the islands of the Mediterranean Sea, in Ancient Greece and Rome. Wheat grains were soaked with sweetened water in wooden vats, fermented, then kneaded with feet, then the mass was passed through linen cloth or a sieve; the resulting starch suspension was precipitated in special settling tanks, the raw starch was spread on stones and dried in the sun. The beginning of the production of starch from wheat in other European countries dates back to the 16th century, and in the 17th century. almost simultaneously with the spread of potato culture imported from America, potato starch began to be produced. The production of potato starch became more widespread in almost all European countries at the end of the 18th century. after the invention of the hand grater.
How I got starch from potatoes
The experimental part was carried out in March.
To conduct the experiment, I chose 2 potato tubers of the Nevsky variety, approximately the same size, grown in my grandmother’s dacha in the town of Uzlovaya, Tula region, and in the neighboring village of Ura-Guba. (Appendix 1.2)
To find out which of these potato varieties contains more starch, I weighed the tubers. It turned out that 142 grams of potatoes of each type. I chopped washed potatoes of one type on a fine grater, periodically moistening it with water. So I got potato porridge. The resulting mass was poured with a small amount of water so that the starch did not darken, mixed and filtered through cheesecloth. I mixed the potato grounds with water several more times and passed them through a sieve. The water washed away grains of starch from the potatoes (Appendix 3).
The filtered portions of water were left to settle. Without shaking, I carefully drained the top liquid and left the starch to dry.
After about a day, the starch dried out, and I crushed it with a spoon to get rid of any lumps. At the same time, the starch crunched like snow. I got two piles of starch from different potatoes. One was larger than the other. Weighing showed that we isolated 4.25 grams of starch from potatoes grown in the middle zone, and 1.95 grams from potatoes grown in Ura-Guba (Appendix 4.5).
This means that the starch content in potatoes depends on its growth. Properties of starch Using simple experiments, based on the definitions of starch, we study its properties. Experiment 1. Compare starch made at home and an industrial product. (Appendix 6) Conclusion: no significant differences are observed. Experiment 2. Add some starch to the water. (Appendix 6) The water becomes cloudy. After some time, sediment appears at the bottom of the container. We observed this property in the process of isolating starch from potatoes (the starch settled to the bottom of the container). Conclusion: Starch does not dissolve in water. Experiment 3. We checked the reaction of iodine with starch. (Appendix 6)
- Starch obtained from different potatoes and purchased at the store was mixed in three containers.
- We added iodine to each container and observed a change in the color of the liquids - the solutions turned blue.
- We compared the color in the containers - it turned out to be the same.
Use of starch
Starch products obtained from corn and potatoes are of great economic importance and are used for food and technical purposes.
At a temperature of 60 degrees, starch swells (dissolves), forming a viscous solution - a paste. This property is used in the preparation of jelly.
Modern confectioners use starch as a thickener in marmalade and dairy products.
The adhesive properties of starch make it possible to include it in construction mixtures and during painting and finishing work.
Starch is especially widely used in the textile industry to add density to fabrics and to thicken printing inks.
Starch is used in the leather and printing industries.
Potato starch serves as the basis for various ointments, tablets, powders, powders, compresses, and is used as an enveloping, emollient and anti-inflammatory agent for diseases gastrointestinal tract. It protects the intestinal mucosa from irritation when taking medications. Starch baths relieve itching and diathesis in children.
Starch is widely used in cosmetology (included in masks, creams, powder, etc.)
Making toys.
I decided to make my own “mushroom toys”.
It's not difficult to make them.
1. Prepare a balloon, potato starch, marker and yarn.
2. Pour starch into the ball using a cardboard tube from food foil and tie a knot.
3. Draw a face.
(Appendix 7)
Conclusion
The main source of energy for the human body is carbohydrates. They account for more than 70% of the human diet. The main representative of carbohydrates in human nutrition is starch.
In the course of our work, we found out that northern potatoes contain less starch.
The hypothesis of the work was not confirmed.
In the northern regions, potato harvesting is often timed not to coincide with the natural death of the tops, when the starch content in the tubers is maximum and the yield is highest, but to the first frost, which kills the tops, which causes the reduced starch content of the tubers. Longer days in northern regions not only delay tuber formation, but also starch synthesis. Temperature conditions also have a certain influence on starch accumulation. Cool and cloudy weather (weather in northern latitudes) inhibits starch accumulation, moderately warm and sunny weather increases it.
Research results:
I learned to work not only with books, but also with Internet resources, obtaining information;
learned to extract starch from potatoes;
mastered the technology of conducting experiments with starch;
studied the properties of starch
To get answers to questions, it is not necessary to wait until we start studying chemistry. You can simply set up a laboratory in the kitchen!
Literature
Big children's encyclopedia. Chemistry/Composition K. Lucis. M.: Russian Encyclopedic Partnership. 2000.
Small children's encyclopedia. Chemistry/Comp. K. Lucis. M.: Russian Encyclopedic Partnership, 2001.
Olgin O. Funny chemistry for children. M.: "Children's Literature", 1997.
Pleshakov A. The world around us. Textbook for 4th grade beginning. schools. - M.: “Enlightenment”, 2009.
Internet resources:
http://www.pandia.ru/400449/
http://artyx.ru/news/item/f00/s06/n0000690/index.shtml
APPLICATIONS
APPENDIX 1. Potato tubers grown at a dacha in the Tula region.
APPENDIX 2: Potato tubers grown in Ura-Guba
APPENDIX 3: Stages of starch production at home
APPENDIX 4: Starch from potatoes grown in Ura Guba
APPENDIX 5: Starch from potatoes grown at a dacha in the Tula region
APPENDIX 6: Comparison of starch properties
APPENDIX 7: Making a muffin toy
Potato starch was once a rare commodity, but these days it is used in almost every aspect of the household. If, for a long time living on personal plot If you often use starch anywhere, it will be easier and cheaper to make it from potatoes yourself than to go to the city every time to buy it. But in order to get it yourself, you need to know well how to make starch from potatoes, how to get it at home without much effort... We will tell you about this.
Each summer resident, before sending the potato harvest grown at the dacha for storage, sorts it, selecting only large and medium-sized tubers. What should we do with small samples, which, due to their extremely small size, are not suitable not only for long-term storage, but even for immediate consumption? These are the ones that can be processed so that, as a result of simple procedures, fairly high-quality starch can be obtained from potatoes.
But before you start cooking, you need to thoroughly clean the potato chips. To do this, we immerse it in a large container - for example, a basin - filled with water, and wash it, helping ourselves with a brush with soft plastic bristles.
Since in the future the potatoes will be processed together with the peel, this step cannot be neglected; it is even better to repeat it several times for better cleaning. Well, now we move directly to how to obtain starch from potatoes.
After the peeled tubers have dried a little, they will need to be passed through a meat grinder, as already mentioned, along with the peel. Some people recommend simplifying the process by using a juicer instead of a meat grinder. If you decide to go this route, be sure to remove the fine mesh sieve from the juicer.
Place the skipped potatoes in a zinc bucket, and pour water into it, the volume of which should be 2 times the volume of the potato mass. Having mixed everything thoroughly, let the solution brew, then filter, passing through a fine sieve.
The grounds that remain in the sieve are put back into the bucket and the procedure is repeated. Water gradually washes away starch particles from potatoes, so the filtered water will be very rich in starch. Having done this operation several times, the water needs to be collected in a separate container - preferably a large pan - and left for 3-4 hours.
Now, the infused solution needs to be freed from the top layer of liquid, for which you need to carefully, trying not to shake the mixture, drain it until only the thickness remains in the pan. We dilute it again with clean water and leave it to infuse again.
To obtain a high-quality result, this procedure will have to be repeated several times, at least three. A sign that starch is ready is the colorlessness of the settled water. As soon as the water poured into the pan stops darkening, it means the moment has come and, after draining the liquid, you will find gray powder at the bottom. This will be the starch.
All that remains is to dry it. To do this, spread the wet powder on plastic wrap spread out in a dry place, away from direct sunlight and drafts. You need to dry the potato starch until it becomes free-flowing. This usually takes about a week. The finished starch should be poured into a jar and closed with a tight lid.
Subsequently, when soaked, the starch swells, forming a transparent mass. Therefore, it is used to prepare jelly, as well as to give the desired thickness to soups and gravies. In addition, it can be added to the cake cream, which will prevent it from “spreading.” By the way, the addition of starch, although it does not improve the taste properties of food, does not worsen them, moreover, it does not contain any harmful substances, so its use is absolutely safe.
Starch can be especially useful in dachas and country houses, where housewives often do various types of baking, adding starch to wheat flour when preparing dough.
Starch is most often used when baking biscuits; in this case, its use allows you to remove excess moisture from the dough, making the biscuit light and airy. In Southeast Asian cuisine, starch is used to prepare hot dishes from meat, poultry, fish, etc. The Chinese mix starch with flour and spices, and then bread the meat in it. This processing allows all the juices to be retained inside the product, so the meat is very tender.
although some of them can be replaced with your own, and they are known to be healthier. Here potato starch , just the product that you can make yourself.Of course, it will require suitable raw materials, and it would be stupid to buy potatoes and then use them to make such homemade starch. So this recipe is more suitable for those who have their own potatoes in the cellar.
For starch fresh potatoes not needed at all. Even a little frostbitten (which happens in winter), or, as now, already heavily sprouted, would be suitable here. After all, it’s already the end of July and the old potatoes have already sprouted and shriveled so much that you don’t even want to eat them.
Moreover, new crop potatoes have already appeared in markets and stores, and someone has already quietly begun to dig up their own. But the old one, so as not to throw it away, can be recycled in this way and you will get your own homemade starch, certainly without chemicals, if you prepare it for yourself.
Making starch from potatoes at home
The technology, I must say, is not particularly complicated, everything is quite simple, but, of course, it will still take a little effort. We will make starch starting from a bucket of potatoes, so it will be easier to navigate by the yield of the finished product.
As I already said, you can take any potato, if it has sprouts, then you will need to pick them off, and, of course, wash the potatoes thoroughly. Then we clean it and grate it on any medium grater. You can use a food processor to chop the potatoes.
We quickly rinse all the mass that you have obtained. Just quickly, in order to preserve the starch we need in potatoes, and not to wash it with water.
Next we need a sieve or sieve. Place gauze on their bottom, and fold it in two layers (one is still not enough). We place a sieve on a bucket and put chopped potatoes into it in portions.
Thus, you will need to rinse all the potato mass that you chopped. Let the water settle, and after 2 or three hours, you simply drain it, and only the starch we need will remain at the bottom. If the starch is gray, then you can fill it again with clean water.
If you decide to prepare starch for storage, then you will definitely need to dry it. This should be done when you drain the water for the last time.
Then the starch itself is laid out in a thin layer on a cloth or paper and let it dry like that, but it must be stirred every three hours, each time until it is completely dry.
Starch should not be dried in extreme heat. If the temperature during drying is more than 40 degrees, then your wet starch can easily turn into a paste.
When your starch dries, you sift it, pour it into a suitable container and you can put it away for storage.
This homemade starch can be stored for quite a long time. You can determine that the starch has dried simply by touch. I think everyone imagines how pleasantly it crunches when you knead it with your fingers. Or you can roll it with a rolling pin, the sound will also make it clear whether the starch is dry or not.
In addition, you should know that the starch you get will not be the same in color as what we are used to seeing in stores. It will be a little yellowish. And in factories it turns out like this too, but to make it look more attractive, they simply turn it a little blue.
But we need pure starch, without chemicals, so there is no need to turn it blue at all.
About one and a half liters of starch comes out of a large bucket (12 liters). Of course, young potatoes contain more starch, so it is better to do it in the fall, when you have just dug up the potatoes. After all, not all tubers are suitable for storage. There are damaged or small ones, so they can be processed in this way.
In addition, you can then make liquid starch from such starch again. Let’s say this is needed to starch a napkin (who does this). You simply dilute the starch in water. Its concentration may vary
That's all the tricks for making homemade starch for today. So, if you have old or substandard potatoes and still have some free time, you can extract starch in this way.
Every good housewife has a stock of groceries. The shelves in any kitchen are lined with jars and bags of cereals, sugar, flour, salt and butter. In addition, housewives always keep a supply of starch. This is a universal product that is used not only for culinary purposes, but also for various household needs.
How to make starch at home? This is a fairly simple process, although labor intensive. The main thing is to find suitable raw materials.
Potato starch
Traditionally, potato starch is used in Russian cooking. From the very for a long time Kissels were made from it - sweet and sour and very healthy for the stomach. But it can be used in almost any dish that needs to be thickened. Starch is added to airy meringues, berry fillings in pies, to various sauces and other dishes.
In addition, it is used as a basis for homemade anti-wrinkle masks. From potato starch, you can make your own safe children's plasticine, tinted with carrot, beet and spinach juice. And if the baby bites off a piece of such “dough”, then it’s okay.
Potato starch is also used in folk medicine- for the treatment of rashes and itching.
Raw materials
How to make potato starch at home? There's nothing complicated about it. You can use any potato for raw material - large, small, frozen, and even good areas from rotten tubers.
A good choice would be medium-sized tubers of potato varieties intended for long-term storage. They are more starchy and the yield will be greater.
How to cook
How to make starch at home? The procedure will be as follows:
- Wash the tubers. Young potatoes from the garden do not need to be peeled. Old tubers need to be peeled off. Remove all bad areas from rotten ones.
- Grind the potatoes in any convenient way. It's best when grated. Mechanical graters, meat grinders and food processors are ideal for this.
- Pour the potato pulp with cold, clean water in a 1:1 ratio.
- Mix the resulting substance thoroughly. During this process, starch is washed out of the tubers and floats as a suspension in the water.
- Then you need to strain the liquid through a sieve to remove any remaining potatoes.
- The liquid must be left to stand until it becomes lighter in color and all the sediment is at the bottom. The white layer of sediment is starch. If it is dirty in color, then you need to drain the water from above so as not to disturb the powder at the bottom, and fill it with fresh, clean water. Then let it sit again. Repeat the procedure until the starch becomes clean.
- Drain last water. Take out the starch, squeeze it out lightly and put it on paper to dry.
- Dry for several days, periodically loosening and stirring the resulting product.
The resulting powder will have a slightly yellow. This is fine. When produced on an industrial scale, it turns out exactly the same, but it is slightly blued to make it more attractive to buyers.
How to make starch at home quickly? It can be done. If starch is needed for use in some dish, then it can be used wet. That is, as soon as the sediment settles, it can be immediately put into use.
If you need a dry product, then its drying can be accelerated by forced heating in the oven. However, you need to make sure that the temperature does not rise above 40 ⁰C, otherwise the starch will be spoiled.
Cornstarch
Corn starch has very different properties from potato starch. And if any recipe says to add cornstarch, then you cannot replace it with potato, even in a smaller volume.
There are three types of corn starch - premium, first and amylopectin grade. In addition, modified starch is used in various products. This natural product, specially processed so that any of its properties change.
How to make starch from corn at home? This is not as easy to do as with potatoes. But with due diligence it is possible.
How to make it
How to make cornstarch at home? First of all, you need to take the right raw materials. To make good starch, you need either ripened fresh corn kernels or very hard ones, like popcorn.
Fresh beans are easier to work with. They are soft and easily grind into pulp. The problem is that in most of our country such grains do not have time to ripen. They remain at the stage of milk maturity, and it is problematic to obtain starch from them.
Hard, dense corn kernels are a more suitable raw material. But they are harder to work with. They need to either be crushed and then soaked. Or do the opposite, which is much easier. However, it should be remembered that corn swells very slowly.
How to make starch from corn at home? The procedure is exactly the same as when working with potatoes. However, it should be understood that when using a small volume of raw materials, the yield of the final product will be small.
On an industrial scale, corn starch is produced by soaking crushed grains in a weak solution of sulfuric acid, followed by a multi-stage sludge purification. This cannot be done at home.
Liquid starch for laundry
How to make liquid starch at home? It's very simple. You just need to dilute the dry powder in water in the required proportions. To prepare it you should take:
- corn starch - 0.5 cups;
- cold water - 2 glasses;
- essential oil lavender, bergamot or rose - 3-4 drops.
You need to pour out a small part of the water and mix the powder in it so that there are no lumps left. The remaining water must be brought to a boil and the diluted starch must be poured into it in a thin stream, stirring continuously. After the mixture is poured in, you need to keep it on the fire for another minute, without ceasing to stir. Then you can remove it, add aromatic essential oil and cool.
This starch is used when ironing collars and cuffs on blouses and shirts, or individual items of clothing are soaked in it after rinsing.
If you have enough potatoes (even substandard ones), I advise you to prepare starch at home. Unlike store-bought analogues, it does not contain chemical additives. The technology for producing potato starch is much simpler than it seems. The necessary equipment is available in every kitchen, and in addition to tubers, only clean water is required.
Any potato is suitable for preparing starch: large, small, just harvested, overwintered, frozen, wrinkled. As long as it's not rotten and spoiled. The yield of the finished product depends on the starch content in the tubers themselves; for most varieties it is 14-20%. Average figures - from 1 bucket of potatoes you get 1-1.5 kg of homemade starch.
Ingredients:
- potatoes – 10 kg;
- water – 30-35 liters.
Depending on the variety and the thoroughness of soaking, the finished potato starch may have a yellowish tint. This is normal, the factory analogue is also not always white, it is “tinted” with chemicals.
Homemade potato starch recipe
1. Wash the tubers well cold water, cut out rotten and damaged parts. It is advisable to peel the peel. But if the potatoes are very small or you don’t have time, you don’t have to peel them, it’ll just take longer to wash out the starch so that it turns white.
2. Grind the potatoes on a fine grater or pass through a meat grinder. Add water to the container with the puree (or on a grater) so that the mixture is always liquid. Potatoes will release starch into the water.
3. Pour 10 liters of water over mashed potatoes and stir.
4. Strain through double-folded gauze or a sieve. Squeeze out the pulp (hard part) well. Squeezes are no longer used.
5. Leave the liquid for 10-15 minutes until the starch settles to the bottom. The water will be cloudy and white foam will appear on top, this is normal.
6. Carefully drain the water, then add clean water (a smaller amount is possible) and mix. Wait again for the starch to settle.
First drain of water, starch is still dirty 7. Repeat the previous step 4-5 times until the water becomes clear and the starch at the bottom is clearly visible.
Fifth water change, starch turned white 8. Place raw starch in a thin layer on foil, a tray or oven tray. 
9. Dry in the sun or in the oven at a temperature not exceeding 40°C. Periodically crush the lumps.
With more high temperature the starch will turn into a paste, and it will not be possible to restore its properties.
10. Pass the prepared potato starch through a coffee grinder or roll it out with a rolling pin until it becomes crumbly (optional). 
11. Store in hermetically sealed packaging in a dry, warm place. Shelf life is unlimited.
