Substances that makes food thicker.
Agar
They make excellent thickeners for stew and gravy.
To thicken the food. Why else?
They're both used as thickeners in cooking
Mostly enzymes or starch molecules which thicken whilst heat or liquid is added.
There is no single method that applies to "most sauces." Different types of thickeners and different methods are used to make different sauces. Some sauces are simply simmered until enough liquid evaporates to obtain the desired thickness, while other sauces require thickeners such as flour, cornstarch, tapioca or arrowroot.
As thickeners and rheology modifiers but they are also used in resin production as a stabilizer. The resin is then used as the binder in the paint.
it contains acids that break down natural thickeners in a humans body.
Four letter food thickeners are usually either "agar" or "guar." Check if your "u" is correct.
The grade of ice cream does not affect the melting time of ice cream. Ice cream that doesn't contain thickeners (added to products to bulk them up and improve the texture and look) will melt faster than ice cream with thickeners, regardless of flavor. You can tell the difference yourself with a side by side test; put a spoonful of each on dishes at the same time. Leave them to melt and you will see the ice cream without thickeners will melt down to a liquid and the ice cream with the thickeners will hold it's shape a lot longer even if they are at the same temperature. You can also simply read the ingredients list, look for alginate, agar, carrageenan, guar gum, xanthan gum, sorbitol, glycerol, pectin, phosphates, etc. I'm sure that you've seen these and similar sounding thickeners is many of the processed foods you use. You can find this information at the Explore E Numbers website, link below.
say your making almond extract. you take the almond and extract the inital flavor from that and concentrate it. other things like preservitives and thickeners may be added