Jet-cooked starch-oil composites were evaluated to determine whether t
he cooking procedure resulted in alteration of the chemical compositio
n of either the starch or oil. Although these composites, both in dry
form and in aqueous solution, were highly resistant to separation of s
tarch and oil, there was no evidence of covalent bonding of the compon
ents, and composition of the starch moiety was unchanged. Extraction o
f oil from dried composites with a variety of organic solvents was not
effective for complete recovery of oil; an amount of oil representing
approximately 5% of the starting weight of the composite could be rec
overed only after hydrolytic degradation of the starch. Extraction of
oil from aqueous solutions of composites was also inefficient for comp
lete oil recovery. The extent of extraction varied with concentration
of both starch and oil. Typically, extraction repeated eight times wit
h hexane recovered less than 80% of the oil from solutions with starch
concentrations above 0.6%.