Why it's called 勾芡？

Question

I understand the meaning of "勾芡", but I was not able to find the origin of this term. I am trying to learn why when "勾" and "芡" combine together, they mean velveting. Thank you in advance!

This comes from Chinese cooking where corn starch is added, (usually at the final stage), to thicken, "smoothern" dishes, resulting in a "velvety" texture, and the act of adding corn starch is termed 勾芡. — Wayne Cheah, Aug 22 '22 at 07:21
Note other varieties of Chinese don't natively use 勾 as the verb, e.g. Cantonese uses 打 — Michaelyus, Aug 22 '22 at 14:28

Mou某 · Accepted Answer · 2022-08-22T07:14:08.400

3

The origin of the word is from acting as a soup thickener:

勾 = 调(tiáo)制 = to mix

芡 = 芡粉 = starch powder

Starch powder has often been added to soups to thicken up the soup.

Another usage of starch powder, as you alluded to in your question, is to soften meat and make it less chewy. This is more of an extension from the above usage - as the starch powder is acting more like a coating and less like something that is being mixed in.

edited Aug 22 '22 at 07:14

answered Aug 22 '22 at 05:33

Mou某

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Think you so very much for your detailed explanations! – Maurice Aug 22 '22 at 13:32
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@Maurice Also the 芡 is the name of the plant from which the starch was originally made.. nowadays most chief use corn starch or potato starch but the word did not change. – Archeosudoerus Aug 22 '22 at 20:53
Got it! Thank you, Archeosudoerus . – Maurice Aug 22 '22 at 23:45

Why it's called 勾芡？

1 Answers1