I’m a Lazy Home Cook: This Ingredient Makes Me Look Like a Pro

I consider myself a home cook first and foremost, which means my tools don’t necessarily overlap with those of modernist chefs who make cheese mousses or turn pan sauces into spheres. One thing we have in common: an unhealthy dependence on xanthan gum.

Xanthan gum, the powdered thickener that stabilizes store-bought ice cream and gives body to bottled salad dressings, has an outdated reputation as a difficult or industrial ingredient. I argue that it’s not just for avant-garde cooks experimenting in the lab; It’s also for lazy cooks.

I know this because I’m a lazy cook who has broken emulsions, under-reduced sauces, and miscalculated the roux needed to thicken the sauce at Thanksgiving. In all of these cases, xanthan gum has been a culinary lifesaver.

Even if you’ve never made a mistake in the kitchen (I don’t believe you), xanthan gum still deserves a place in your pantry. Read on for a user-friendly way to incorporate this not-so-mysterious powder into your cooking—no jeweler’s scales required.

What is xanthan gum?

Xanthan gum, like the yeast in your pantry, is a product of microbial fermentation: specifically, it’s made by fermenting simple sugars, such as glucose or sucrose, with bacteria. Xanthomonas campestris, which is a beautiful name for a baby. Formally, xanthan gum is a hydrocolloid, meaning it interacts with water to form a gel, much like agar, gelatin, or cornstarch. More casually, it’s a thickener that can stabilize emulsions, pad pan sauces, and help batter adhere better to fried foods.

But xanthan gum has some advantages over other thickeners and emulsifiers. Unlike gelatin, it is vegan, making it accessible to a variety of cooks. Unlike agar, its activation does not require heat, meaning it can thicken fresh fruit or herb purees without altering their delicate flavors. And with exponentially stronger thickening power than cornstarch, xanthan can be added in ghostly amounts. You’re unlikely to taste it in a solution unless you add enough to turn your sauce into Flubber.

Where to find xanthan gum

Although xanthan gum has been on the market for over 60 years, it has recently become much easier to find in retail stores, thanks to its use in gluten-free flours, where it helps strengthen protein networks. Today, you can find xanthan gum in many grocery stores (try looking for a Bob’s Red Mill display), although it is also readily available online.

How Home Cooks Can Use Xanthan Gum

One of the easiest ways to get started with xanthan gum is to use it to stabilize cold sauces and salad dressings. A little pinch in my homemade taco sauce keeps it from separating, even if I forget it in the fridge for a week. Mixing just a pinch into simple oil and vinegar dressings helps them adhere to each lettuce leaf, even without the emulsifying power of mustard.

You can get more creative from there. A fractional amount of xanthan gum lets you thicken homemade mayonnaise, keep whipped cream from running for days, and turn any poaching liquid into a glossy glaze.

One of its most underrated qualities might be its ability to improve batter adhesion to fried foods. Xanthan gum has fluidizing properties, which is another way of saying that a xanthan-enriched paste will appear thin while you’re actively mixing or stirring it, but will thicken as it rests. This is ideal for a batter that can evenly coat food without it leaking on its way to the fryer.

Tips for Using Xanthan Gum Without Turning Sauce into Jelly

In powder form, xanthan gum requires somewhat special handling. The powder will not disperse evenly in liquids with just a spoon or whisk. You need a blender or immersion blender to completely dissolve and hydrate the xanthan gum and avoid unsightly clumps.

But perhaps the biggest downside to xanthan gum is that its potency requires you Do math. Most recipes using xanthan gum call for a fractional amount: as little as 1/8 teaspoon, say, or 0.1 percent of the weight of a solution. This generally requires both a very sensitive scale and a reasonable faculty for numbers. I once accidentally turned a nice batch of fermented hot sauce into jelly because I missed a decimal point.

To get around these constraints, I adopt a technique borrowed from the kitchens of high-end restaurants: pre-mixing xanthan in a solution called in slang “pre-hy” (for “pre-hydrated”).

To make pre-hy, I use the same ratio as Thomas Keller’s recipe from French laundry, in itself, but reduced for a home cook. Using a vertical or immersion blender, chop 10 grams of xanthan gum in 500 grams of water. Start your blender on low and slowly increase the speed to full power, until the powder is completely incorporated and the mixture forms a smooth, continuous vortex in your blender.

The resulting solution can be poured into sauces or gravies in more reasonable quantities, thereby reducing the margin for error. It is also, I must reveal, quite disgusting. When mixed properly, pre-hy will have a texture that I can only describe as “snot mush.”

But who among us hasn’t experienced the wonder of transforming something mucilaginous (okra! seaweed! eels!) into something magical and delicious? Whether powdered or pre-hydrated, I maintain that xanthan gum has a place in your pantry. It’s not complicated, it’s the closest thing to a panacea in the culinary world.

There’s almost nothing a little snot can’t fix.