Random Stuff

 Good Roux's Bad Roux's ?

By Mark Digatono, April 4, 2007 

The word is roux pronounced roo and is an essential part of making sauces. Roux is made with equal parts of Flour and Clarified Butter. One pound of Roux will thicken One Gallon of liquid. Lets review 8 oz Butter plus 8 oz Flour plus one Gallon of liquid equals One Gallon of Sauce.

Here is a recipe that might help

Melt 1/2 a stick of Butter in a Saucepan add 2 Oz's Flour

cook this Mixture until it bubbles and smells a bit like popcorn

add to this 1 quart of Cold Chicken Stock and stir until blended.

Bring this to a boil stiring frequently.

Always add Cold Liquids to Hot Roux, or Cold Roux to Hot Liquid. There is a reaction needed to make the sauce thicken and the reaction won't happen if both are too close in temperature. 

This is a basic Poulet Sauce from Classic French Cooking

Substitute Beef Stock and you will get Brown or Espagnole Sauce

 Use Cream to get Bechamel, or White sauce.

These sauces can be used to create a variety of other sauces and are in fact some of the "Mother Sauces" refered to on the food network.

Vinaigrette and Hollandaise are two more Mother Sauces I will write about later.

Digs