Fecula

Perhaps you don't realize that I am a big-time fan of Tapioca pudding? It's true. Somewhere along the line, I must have cared enough to investigate where it came from because I knew that it came from the root of a tropical plant. That must have been enough to satisfy my curiosity - all this time I have been going around under the impression that somewhere in the world, plants were being yanked up from the ground, washed off and then banged against the side of a collection bin until the little pearls of tapioca fell off of them.

Not true. It turns out that tapioca is a fecula, and a pulverulent one, too.  The root is processed into flour, mixed with water and forced through a seive to form the little pearls. So while I thought I was eating  a natural ingredient, it turns out that I was in fact eating a processed food.

That really doesn't phase me, though. It's not like when I found out that eggs were unborn chicken fetuses and I was revolted enough to temporarily stop eating them. I'm not about to give up tapioca. I'm only saying that if you wanted to be a food purist and eat only unprocessed foods, you'd have a hard job indeed.

(FYI - When I am periodically seized by fits of healthful living and announce that I am giving up processed foods, what I mean by 'processed foods' is hot dogs, not tapioca.)

Now playing at The Soup: Queen Victoria Soup (and it's thickened with tapioca)

TMI:
Industrial Standard for Tapioca Pellets. It shall be free from alive insects!

International Starch Institute: Memorandum on Tapioca Starch. Soil and dirt not removed in the washing station yield problems later

Comments

[ToxicLabRat]

I read somewhere that tapioca is put on the bottom of English Muffins (Thomas')....a nice tidbit of knowledge!

[tina]

Love tapioca??? Only the big pearls. Little pearls?? No.