Cornflour, cornstarch or cornmeal?

[TrialOfStyle]

This is less of a AIBU but more of ‘what the fuck am I doing?’

Where do you use each of them? I made a Lush-style fun bar today (soapy Play-doh) as an activity to do with my son. I used cornflour and it was okay. But then I saw a recipe for bubble bars, but that wants cornstarch. I genuinely don’t know how they differ and googling is confusing me. I understand WHY they are different but not how to use them differently.

Can someone shed some light on this? If you use all of the above, what would you them in?

Cornflour and cornstarch are the same thing I think. Cornmeal is different - a bit like polenta maybe. Probably not any good for this.

I always thought cornflour and cornstarch were the same thing just known by different names. Cornmeal I thought was similar to Polenta. I have no idea if I am as wrong as hell or not.

I think they are the same, cornmeal is more american I think.

Corn starch is what Americans call cornflour I think

Cornstarch is the American name for what we would call cornflour. Cornmeal is yellow ground maize - pretty much the same as polenta and is used in cornbread.

Cornflour is the UK name while cornstarch is the US version. Cornmeal is coarser and polenta is a particular grade of cornmeal.

See, I thought they were the same too. Cornflour feels nothing like wheat or chaat flour, so I figured that made sense. But when I googled, health line said this:

“Corn flour is a yellow powder made from finely ground, dried corn, while cornstarch is a fine, white powder made from the starchy part of a corn kernel. Both may go by different names depending on where you live. Corn flour is used similarly to other flours, whereas cornstarch is mainly used as a thickener.”

Which now makes me wonder is cornflour is the same as cornstarch in the UK, but cornflour is the same as cornmeal in USA. It’s bloody confusing trying to follow American recipes for things.

I only know for cooking purposes corn flour and corn starch are the same, used to thicken gravy and soup. I've heard people using it as a replacement for flour when frying chicken or fish as the coating after the egg wash.

Cornmeal is the ingredient used to make polenta, cornbread or cornmeal porridge. Hope that helps?

I think that’s a US explanation. I think US cornflour is the yellow blah blah.
I really think cornflour is called cornstarch in the US.

What is cornflour in uk is corn starch elsewhere. Cornmeal is coarser, a grain like couscous.

That you for clearing this up. I thought I was right but seeing different recipes calling it either cornflour or cornstarch was really confusing me (all American). And as I say, when googling and seeing the Healthline response I had no idea.

So as long as it’s white and feels, well starchy, it is cornflour = cornstarch. A yellowish colour and more polenta like is cornmeal.

Cornflour is the same thing as corn starch; a fine white powder.

Maize flour is a medium yellow flour (like wheat flour, but made of corn).

Cornmeal or polenta is coarsely ground.

corn starch and corn flour mean two different things to me. but i'm in canada and indeed corn starch is made from the starchy portion of the kernel and nothing like finely ground corn flour. with corn meal being very coarsely ground.

@LIZS

What is cornflour in uk is corn starch elsewhere. Cornmeal is coarser, a grain like couscous.

Cous cous isn’t a grain, it’s tiny pasta.

Texture like couscous!