The uses of tapioca go far beyond the little pearls in pudding

tapioca pearls It did not occur to me that Mary Ely's request fortapioca-thickened French oven stew and Claire Crawford's requestfor a dropped-dough nectarine cobbler would have much in common. But Ely's specification of tapioca and comments on the recipe Websites recommending it as a thickener for cobbler reminded me of aday many years ago when a neighbor asked to borrow some tapiocafrom my mom to thicken a cherry pie. How odd, I thought, accustomed to cherry pie with a satiny andtranslucent sweet sauce surrounding the tart red cherries. Eventhough I liked tapioca pudding, I could not imagine who would wantslimy, rubbery little balls of it in cherry pie.I learned much later, of course, that when used as a thickener,tapioca pearls are pulverized. A contributor to goodbaker .com praises tapioca as a thickener forfruit pies and cobblers because it can tolerate fruit acids andthickens at a lower temperature than cornstarch. At chefsline.com are pros and cons of various thickeners: Arrowroothas no effect on flavor and produces a bright and translucentsauce. It also holds up if frozen. Flour, most convenient because it is nearly always on hand,produces a cloudy sauce and, because more of it is required thanother thickeners, can impart a floury flavor. Cornstarch results in a bright translucent sauce but tends to besomewhat slimy at first and downright gluey the next day. Also,cornstarch-thickened sauces reheated to the boiling point becomethin again. Instant tapioca can be used like cornstarch for a brighttranslucent sauce, although this Web site says it does not adherewell to berries but works for large stone fruits and apples. Generally, thickeners should be added to fruit at the same time assugar and spices unless you are cooking the fruit first. In that case, mix the thickener with a bit of cold water to form aslurry and stir it into the fruit after removing it from the heat. For 6 cups of fruit you will need 2 to 3 tablespoons of arrowroot,3 to 4 tablespoons of instant tapioca or 4 to 5 tablespoons ofcornstarch or flour, says chefsline.com. Incidentally, Ely remembered the stew from the Herald- Tribune andCrawford remembered the cobbler from a Woman's Auxiliary or JuniorLeague cookbook in Fort Myers in the '50s. I could find neither, soI hope the accompanying recipes will suffice.