Guar gum
A seed-derived thickener that works mainly by raising viscosity and binding water, and which behaves differently enough from xanthan to matter.
Also called guar (INTERNATIONAL); E412 (TRADE)
Guar gum comes from the endosperm of the guar bean and thickens water strongly at low concentrations. Compared with xanthan it acts mainly by raising viscosity and binding water rather than by the rigid rod-like shear-thinning behaviour xanthan shows, and it interacts synergistically with other hydrocolloids — which cuts both ways, since a combination can be better or markedly worse than either component alone.
It is frequently presented as a cheaper, interchangeable alternative to xanthan. The measured position is more careful: the two behave differently, and at least one published combination containing guar produced the hardest and least resilient bread in its set.
What changes if it is left out
Where guar was the only hydrocolloid, viscosity and gas retention fall and the result goes dense. Where it was part of a blend, the effect depends on what else is present, because the components interact rather than adding up.
RecordedM. Parsamajd, M. Fazaeli, M. Majdinasab and M.-T. Golmakani, Food Science & Nutrition
Related
What it does
Gas retention
Acts mainly by raising viscosity and binding water rather than through xanthan’s shear-thinning behaviour.
Compared in
Guar exists as a record largely because this comparison needed a real entity to point at.