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Roux () is a mixture of
flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...
and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Roux is typically made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight. The flour is added to the melted fat or oil on the stove top, blended until smooth, and cooked to the desired level of brownness. A roux can be white, blond (darker) or brown. Butter,
bacon Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sand ...
drippings or
lard Lard is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.Lard
entry in the o ...
are commonly used fats. Roux is used as a thickening agent for gravy, sauces,
soup Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot (but may be cool or cold), that is made by combining ingredients of meat or vegetables with stock, milk, or water. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ing ...
s and
stew A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. A stew needs to have raw ingredients added to the gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables and ...
s. It provides the base for a dish, and other ingredients are added after the roux is complete.


Uses

The fat is most often butter in French cuisine, but may be
lard Lard is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.Lard
entry in the o ...
or vegetable oil in other cuisines. Roux is used in three of the five
mother sauce In French cuisine, the mother sauces (french: sauces mères), also known as in French, are a group of sauces upon which many other sauces"daughter sauces" or are based. Different sets and classifications of mother sauces have been proposed sinc ...
s of classic French cooking: béchamel sauce, velouté sauce, and espagnole sauce. In Cajun cuisine, roux is made with lard, oil, or meat, poultry, or bacon drippings instead of butter. It is often cooked to a medium or dark brown color, which lends much richness of flavor, but makes it thinner. Central European cuisine often uses rendered lard or more recently vegetable oil instead of butter for the preparation of roux.
Japanese curry is commonly served in three main forms: , curry udon (curry over thick noodles), and (a curry-filled pastry). It is one of the most popular dishes in Japan. The very common "curry rice" is most often referred to simply as . Along with the sau ...
is made from a roux made by frying yellow curry powder, butter or oil, and flour together; this is called . Roux (''meyane'') has been used in Ottoman and
Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...
cuisine since at least the 15th century.


Methods

The fat is heated in a pot or pan, melting it if necessary. Then the flour is added. The mixture is heated and stirred until the flour is incorporated, and then cooked until at least the point where a raw flour taste is no longer apparent and the desired colour has been reached. The final colour can range from nearly white to nearly black, depending on the length of time it is heated and its intended use. The end result is a thickening and flavoring agent. Roux is most often made with butter as the fat base, but it may be made with any edible fat. For meat gravies, fat rendered from meat is often used. In regional American cuisine,
bacon Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sand ...
is sometimes rendered to produce fat to use in the roux. If clarified butter is not available, vegetable oil is often used when producing dark roux, since it does not burn at high temperatures, as whole butter would. Curnonsky's recipe: The iconic French gastronome Curnonsky gives the following recipe: "Roux Preparation time: 10 minutes - Cooking time: 1 hour    Although it may seem surprising, roux, whether brown, blond or white, must be very well cooked. The more a roux is cooked, the clearer, smoother and brighter the sauce will be. If time is limited, it is preferable to make a ''beurre manié''. For rouxes, the proportions are, per litre of liquid: 80g butter, 75g flour. With the reduction, the quantity will be suitable for 8 place settings."


Types

Light (or "white") roux provides little flavor other than a characteristic richness to a dish, and is used in French cooking and some gravies or pastries throughout the world. Darker roux is made by browning the flour in oil for a longer time and adds a distinct nutty flavor to a dish. They may be called "blond," "peanut-butter," "brown," or "chocolate" roux depending on their color. The darker the color, the richer the flavor.
Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...
n (southwest German) cooking uses a darker roux for its "brown broth" (), which, in its simplest form, consists of nothing more than lard, flour, and water, with a bay leaf and salt for seasoning. Dark roux is often made with vegetable oils, which have a higher smoke point than butter, and are used in Cajun and Creole cuisine for gumbos and
stew A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. A stew needs to have raw ingredients added to the gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables and ...
s. The darker the roux, the less thickening power it has; a chocolate roux has about one-fourth the thickening power, by weight, of a white roux. A very dark roux, just shy of burning and turning black, has a distinctly reddish color and is sometimes referred to as "brick" roux. In Hungary, roux ''( rántás)'' is almost always made with
paprika Paprika ( US , ; UK , ) is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers. It is traditionally made from ''Capsicum annuum'' varietals in the Longum group, which also includes chili peppers, but the peppers used for paprika tend to be milder an ...
and is the basis of several dishes, including
főzelék ''Főzelék'' is a type of thick Hungarian vegetable stew or soup, similar to pottage. Főzelék is a special category in Hungarian cuisine, not quite like a soup, and thinner than a stew. It is simply cooked, typically by simmering, not mashin ...
(vegetable stew) and soups. It may also be prepared with onions and garlic.


Cretan staka

''Staka'' () is a type of roux particular to
Cretan cuisine Cretan cuisine ( el, Κρητική κουζίνα) is the traditional cuisine of the Mediterranean island of Crete. Background The core of the Cretan cuisine consists of food derived from plants, whereas food of animal origin was more peripher ...
. It is prepared by cooking
sheep's milk Sheep's milk (or ewes' milk) is the milk of domestic sheep. It is commonly used to make cultured dairy products such as cheese. Some of the most popular sheep cheeses include feta (Greece), ricotta (Italy), and Roquefort (France). Sheep breeds S ...
cream over a low flame with wheat flour or
starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets ...
: the protein-rich part of the butterfat coagulates with the flour or starch and forms the ''staka'' proper, which is served hot. It is generally eaten by dipping bread in it, occasionally served over
French fries French fries (North American English), chips (British English), finger chips ( Indian English), french-fried potatoes, or simply fries, are '' batonnet'' or ''allumette''-cut deep-fried potatoes of disputed origin from Belgium and France. Th ...
. The fatty part separates to form ''stakovoutyro'', staka butter, which is kept for later use and has a faint cheesy flavor. Staka butter is used in Cretan
pilaf Pilaf ( US spelling) or pilau ( UK spelling) is a rice dish, or in some regions, a wheat dish, whose recipe usually involves cooking in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat, and employing some techniq ...
(''piláfi''), commonly served at weddings.


See also

*
Beurre manié Beurre manié (French "kneaded butter") is a dough, consisting of equal parts by volume of soft butter and flour, used to thicken soups and sauces. By kneading the flour and butter together, the flour particles are coated in butter. When the beurr ...
* Chowder *
Étouffée Étouffée or etouffee (, ) is a dish found in both Cajun and Creole cuisine typically served with shellfish over rice. The dish employs a technique known as smothering, a popular method of cooking in the Cajun and Creole areas of southwest Lo ...
* Rubaboo *
Water roux ''Tangzhong'' (), also known as a water roux or ''yu-dane'' ( ja, 湯種, translit=yu-dane) is a paste of flour cooked in water or milk to over which is used to improve the texture of bread and increase the amount of time it takes to stale. ...


References


Further reading

* Troubleshooting roux (p. 130) Oil-based roux (pp. 130–131), Butter roux: the classical and Creole roux (pp. 132–133). Includes color illustrations and recipes. * Distinguishes history of classical French, Creole, and Cajun varieties of roux, with color illustrations of blond, peanut butter, and chocolate roux and detailed oil-based recipe, variations of proportions, chemistry, and storage techniques. Definitive.


External links

* * {{French mother sauces Edible thickening agents Culinary terminology