What does the hook mean in cooking?

Thickening is a traditional cooking technique in China, which is mostly used for cooking fried, slippery and fried dishes.

The academic concept of thickening is that starch has the characteristics of water absorption, adhesion, smoothness and cleanliness after being gelatinized by heat. When the dishes are close to maturity, pour the prepared powder juice into the pot to thicken the marinade and increase the adhesion of the marinade to the raw materials, thus increasing the powder and concentration of the soup and improving the color and taste of the dishes.

Whether thickening is appropriate or not has a great influence on the quality of dishes, so thickening is one of the basic skills of cooking.

There are generally two kinds of thickening, one is the "opposite juice" of seasoned starch juice, and the other is simple starch juice, also called "wet starch" and "pouring juice".