Why Cornstarch Is The Missing Ingredient In Your Homemade Spice Mixes

Creating your own spice mixes lets you control exactly what goes into the food you eat, not to mention managing the all-important heat and salt levels. But perfecting those spice mixes can be a challenge. Not only do you need to find the right combination of flavors, but you must also make sure they have the desired impact on the food you cook with it. If only there were a trick to making your spice mix perfect, then preparing quick and easy meals would be a breeze every time. 

That's exactly where cornstarch comes in. You've no doubt heard of using it to thicken sauces or make fried foods extra crispy. And when you add it to spice mixes like homemade taco seasoning or fajita seasoning, it helps the sauce coat the meat, so each bite is packed with flavor. But it's also an anticaking agent that keeps powdered and granulated ingredients from clumping together, meaning it does double-duty in the spice cabinet. And because it is flavorless, cornstarch works its magic without impacting the taste of a dish.

You can easily add it to any spice mix recipe. Start with a tablespoon of cornstarch per half cup of seasoning mix, then adjust from there based on how it works in your recipe — more cornstarch for more thickening power, less if you want the resulting sauce or coating thinner. If you're only using it for its anticaking properties, you can start with as little as a quarter teaspoon.

This white powder derived from corn kernels is something of a miracle ingredient. It has loads of uses around the kitchen, from safely cleaning your kitchen to making vegetables unbelievably crispy to searing a steak like a pro. But simply whisking cornstarch into your spice mixes won't give you the thickening power or even coating you're trying to achieve. The magic happens when it interacts with water and heat. As the cornstarch absorbs water and heats up, a process called gelatinization occurs. The starch molecules break down and bond with the liquid, making the liquid thicker. So to make the cornstarch in your spice mix work, you need to add water, heat that water to at least 203 degrees Fahrenheit, and keep it there for at least a minute or two. But after that, you need to reduce the heat to avoid breaking down the starch so much the liquid becomes thin again.

In cooking terms, that means you need to have the food mostly done before adding the seasoning mix. If there's not liquid already in the food, you should add some. Then add your water if it isn't already in there and bring it to a boil for a couple of minutes before reducing the heat to a gentle simmer (which is under 200 degrees Fahrenheit) to finish cooking. As the cornstarch does its thing, your spice mix will evenly coat your food and stick and any sauce it creates will become rich and thick, taking your average meal and turning into an epic one.