thickening adj

1 accumulating and becoming more intense; "the deepening gloom"; "felt a deepening love"; "the gathering darkness"; "the thickening dusk" [syn: deepening(a), gathering(a), thickening(a)]

2 becoming more intricate or complex; "a thickening plot"

1 any material used to thicken; "starch is used in cooking as a thickening" [syn: thickener]

2 any thickened enlargement [syn: node, knob]

3 the act of thickening [syn: inspissation]

English

Noun

thickening

1. the process of making something, or becoming, thick or viscous
2. a substance, usually a source of starch, used to thicken a sauce
3. a thickened part of a structure

In cooking, thickening is the process of increasing the viscosity of a liquid either by reduction, or by the addition of a thickening agent, typically containing starch.

Desserts are often thickened with sago, tapioca, gelatin or a gelatine substitute such as agar. Soups, sauces and stews are more often thickened with a starchy product like cornstarch, arrowroot or wheat flour, or a fat and flour mixture such as roux or beurre manié. More rarely, savoury dishes may be thickened with blood.

adhesiveness, clabbering, clamminess, clotting, coagulation, colloidality, concretion, congealment, congelation, curdling, doughiness, gelatination, gelatinity, gelatinization, gelatinousness, gelling, gluelikeness, gluiness, glutinosity, glutinousness, gumlikeness, gumminess, heaviness, incrassation, inspissation, jellification, jelling, jellying, jellylikeness, lentor, mucilaginousness, pastiness, ropiness, setting, slabbiness, sliminess, spissitude, stickiness, stodginess, stringiness, syrupiness, tackiness, tenaciousness, tenacity, thickness, toughness, treacliness, viscidity, viscosity, viscousness