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>I know glutinous rice flour = sweet rice flour, but why is
>the term "glutinous" (which means gluey or sticky) used?  It
>certainly gives pause to those of us with a search image for
>gluten when reading labels.
>
>David Kesler

Reply from Don Kasarda, Albany, CA.

Just one of those things.  Gluten is sticky--same meaning, I guess, but
the term glutinous rice does not imply wheat gluten.  Another confusing
usage is corn gluten for proteins of corn (maize).  Traditionally, since
the 18th century, gluten is the elastic, cohesive ball of protein
remaining after starch is washed away (by kneading in a stream of water)
from a dough.  This can be achieved effectively only with wheat.  It
doesn't even work well for rye.  It doesn't work at all for barley and
corn.  Yet gluten-free for celiac patients has come to mean free of any
grain that has harmful peptide sequences in its proteins.  It seems
strange when a celiac patient asks me how much gluten there is in, say,
amaranth.  For a cereal chemist, that question requires translation into,
"Are there peptide sequences in the proteins of amaranth that might cause
damage in celiac disease."  There is certainly no gluten in the
traditional sense.