How to make your own starch
What you will need:
What To Do:
- Peel and grate 3 large
potatoes over the chopping board.
- Half fill the bowl with
water.
- Put the grated potato into the hanky and tie it
up.
- Dip the hanky in the water and bring it back out again.
Squeeze it very hard back into the water.
- Keep doing this until the
water is really cloudy.
- Leave the water in the bowl for approximately 1 hour.
- White powder should have settled at the bottom of the
bowl.
- Carefully pour off as much of the clear water above the powder
as you can. Leave the powder for a couple of hours to dry
out. Evaporating the water off.
What Happens:
The powder you made is
starch.
Why It Happens:
Plants and animals make starch as a way
of storing sugars. Potatoes, barley and wheat all have large amounts
of starch. When you eat foods high in starch, chemicals in your digestive
juices change the starch to sugars that can be used by your body. Starch is
also put onto cloth to give it weight and make it smooth. The starch you
have made can be used this way while ironing.