Roux: The First Step to a Good Sauce

We all love thick gravy, creamy Mac and cheese, it’s comfort food. Well, what makes the gravy thick and the Mac and cheese creamy is a Roux. And that’s what I would like to talk about today

What is a Roux?

I’m sure you’ve all heard of it, and, I’m sure you’ve made it a few times. So let’s delve into its history. The Roux has been around for hundreds of years, it was in cooking back in the 15th century. They liked comfort food back then too. As with a lot of cooking ideas and recipes, it was entered into French Cuisine. The French have 5 mother sauces, and the Roux, or Bechamel (as they call it) is part of three of them, so it’s pretty important. Depending on how long the Roux is cooked depends on the color of the Roux, and the flavor produced

A Roux is a thickening agent. Well, actually, one of the ingredients is a thickening agent, starch, and the other ingredient is a holding agent, fat, that will allow the starch to mix easier with the liquid. It’s a chemical reaction, that requires one more component, heat. That’s pretty much it, sounds simple enough, but is deceptively difficult, and does require some practice. With the little bit of cooking experience that I have, I’ve found that some of the one or two component recipes can be a little hard to master

What’s in a Roux?

Looking at the individual components, let’s start with the fat. The French use butter, in Cajun cooking fat rendered from bacon is used (please note I cannot make Mac and cheese without bacon, and bacon fat makes the most incredible Roux!). In some European countries they use lard. It just has to be a fat. Obviously, the fat component can bring some flavor.

Now the starch, well, that’s always flour, it’s the thickening agent I had spoken of. The starch molecules absorb the liquid and cause it to thicken. As the the fat and flour are stirred over the heat, the flour cooks. The longer it cooks the darker the color and a toasty flavor will develop. That too will bring some flavor. This flavor base can enhance anything it’s added to, be it a gravy or a Seafood Gumbo.

The ratio

There are a few variables to take into consideration. How much do you need and how thick do you want it. Also, what is the application. Things change a bit between making a cheese sauce for say Mac and cheese, and thickening up a stew, or to make the creamy filling in a pot pie.

Here, we’re making a sauce, that could be a cheese sauce or a gravy sauce a good ratio is 1:1:1. 1 tablespoon of fat to 1 tablespoon of flour to 1 cup of liquid. However, to thicken up a stew a good ratio would be 1:1:2. 1 tablespoon fat to 1 tablespoon flour to 2 cups liquid. That’s really a starting point, and the ending point is how thick you want it. But even if it doesn’t come out right, it’s only a small amount of ingredients and a little bit of time, so never fret. There’s a lot of retakes on those cooking shows that they don’t talk about.

The technique

So, the technique is relatively simple, it just requires a lot of whisking. Start by getting the fat warm over a low to medium heat. In this case I’ll use butter as an example. Once the butter is melted, keep the heat low enough so it doesn’t burn. Add the flour whisking constantly to make sure there are no lumps. This is the hardest part, keep whisking as the flour cooks, about 10 minutes. Now, you can cook the flour longer, it will start to darken a bit and will create a toasty nutty flavor. This works well for a dark sauce, maybe a gravy.

Now, add the liquid little by little whisking as you do, you’ll see the four absorbing the liquid as you do this, so keep adding slowly and whisking as you do. Once it ceases to be a paste and becomes a liquid add the rest of your liquid. Keep whisking as the sauce heats up, you’re going to need to cook it about 15 minutes more. Now it is ready for whatever you want to do with it.

You’ll notice I said liquid and not milk or the stock from the stew. That’s because the next step is whatever you’re doing. For a cheese sauce the liquid would be milk and now you would add cheese. If it’s the stock from a stew, you would now add it to the stew, mixing well, and allow to cook another 1/2 hr. If it’s a gravy, you would use the dripping from whatever you’re cooking and now your gravy is done.

And that is an introduction to a Roux. Food is to be played with and enjoyed. So play with the Roux, it’s an absolute must have for any sauce. Thank you and enjoy