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Potato Starch: Grated, Washed Through a Sieve and Settled
Grate potatoes, wash the pulp through a sieve, and the starch runs out with the water and settles as a white layer. Andrew Ure (1839) describes the works: rasping drums, hair sieves and three settling backs, with starch equal to 17–18 % of the potatoes. Work fast: Ure notes that the quicker it is made, the better the starch.
The picture: Huck's revolving sieve for separating starch from potato pulp, engraved in Les merveilles de l'industrie (1873).
Beginner
A day with drying
Instructions
1
1
Wash and grate
Wash and grate
Scrub the potatoes clean in water and grate them to a fine pulp, wetting the grater now and then so it does not clog.
Materials for this step:
Potatoes5 kg
Water2 litersTools needed:
Balance Scale
Grater
Bucket2
2
Wash the pulp through a sieve
Wash the pulp through a sieve
Set a fine sieve over a vat. Pour water over the pulp and knead it by hand until only fibre is left on the sieve. The water runs through milky with starch.
Materials for this step:
Water15 litersTools needed:
Fine Sieve
Vat3
3
Settle three times
Settle three times
Let the milky water settle. Pour the liquor off into a second bucket, then a third; Ure: the finest starch collects in the last. Stir the white layers up in clean water and settle again until the water stands clear.
Materials for this step:
Water10 litersTools needed:
VatBucket4
4
Dry it
Dry it
Lift the wet starch out, spread it thin on muslin in a warm, airy place and let it dry. Crumble it to a powder and keep it in a jar. To keep it wet instead, store it under a little water and change the water often.
Tools needed:
Muslin Cloth
Glass Jar5
5
Potatoes to starch
Potatoes to starch
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6
6
Limits
Limits
The method and yield are Ure's, from works with rasping drums; the hand grater, buckets and quantities are ours.
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