Corn starch in Poland: what it is called on Polish packs and where to find it

Corn starch in Poland is sold as skrobia kukurydziana, and many Polish recipes simply call it "maizena", after a well-known brand. It is the same fine white powder as American cornstarch and British cornflour, used to thicken sauces and desserts and to make a crisp coating for fried food. The trap in a Polish shop is mąka kukurydziana: that is yellow corn flour, and it does not do the same job.

The Polish names to look for

The English names already differ between countries, and Polish labels add another layer. This table matches what your recipe says with what is written on the pack:

If a British or Indian recipe asks for "cornflour" in a sauce or a batter, it means skrobia kukurydziana. Yellow mąka kukurydziana will not thicken a sauce in the same way and changes the taste of the dish.

Read the word skrobia (starch) on the pack. If the pack says mąka (flour) and the powder is yellow, it is not what you need.

Mąka ziemniaczana: the Polish standard thickener

In Polish kitchens the usual thickener is not corn starch but mąka ziemniaczana, potato starch. Despite the word "mąka" (flour), it is pure starch. It is in every Polish supermarket, and it is what Poles use for kisiel, sauces and some cakes.

You can use it instead of corn starch in most sauces and desserts. It thickens at a lower temperature and gives a glossier, slightly stretchy texture. Do not boil it for long after the sauce has thickened, or the sauce can turn thin again.

How to thicken a sauce with corn starch

Never add the powder straight to hot liquid, or it forms lumps at once. Make a slurry first:

1. Put the starch in a cup and add about the same amount of cold water. Around 1 tablespoon of starch per cup of liquid gives a medium-thick sauce.
2. Stir until there are no lumps.
3. Pour the slurry in a thin stream into the simmering sauce, stirring all the time.
4. Cook for another minute or two. The sauce first turns cloudy, then becomes thick and glossy.

A sauce thickened with corn starch stays clear, which suits sweet and sour sauces and fruit sauces. Very long cooking and hard stirring after it has thickened can make it thin again, so add the starch near the end.

Corn starch in Indian, Indo-Chinese and Chinese cooking

In Indo-Chinese food, popular all over India, corn starch is the base of the coating. Pieces of cauliflower for gobi manchurian, chicken for chilli chicken or paneer for chilli paneer go into a mix of wheat flour and corn starch and are then fried. The starch gives a thin, crisp shell. The same dishes finish with a sauce of soy sauce, garlic and chilli, thickened with a corn starch slurry.

In Chinese cooking, thin slices of meat are coated in a little corn starch with soy sauce before stir-frying in a wok. This keeps them juicy.

In baking, corn starch replaces part of the wheat flour in shortbread and sponges to make them more tender. It also thickens creams, puddings and fruit fillings. Custard powder is mostly corn starch with flavouring and colour.

Other substitutes

Besides potato starch, tapioca starch thickens in a similar way, and rice flour works well in batters for frying. Ordinary wheat flour (mąka pszenna) also thickens a sauce, but you need more of it, the sauce turns cloudy, and it must cook longer to lose the raw flour taste.

Where to buy corn starch in Poland

Little India sells corn starch from the brands used in Indian and Pakistani kitchens, such as Weikfield corn starch, 500 g, Brown & Polson corn starch, 500 g and a smaller pack of Rafhan cornflour, 275 g. Little India has shops in Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław and Gdańsk and ships orders across Poland.

For desserts made with starch, see our guide to custard powder. The other flour for crisp coatings is covered in rice flour in Poland.