How to Make a Roux

Knowing how to make a roux can mean you can make a tasty thick sauce to compliment any meal. A roux is the traditional way to thicken and enrich gravies, sauces and soups. It’s even used in Cajun/Creole cooking. This how to shows you the simplest way to make a Roux.

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Steps

1- Prepare your ingredients- flour and butter. You will need equal weights of flour and fat (usually butter). 4 ounces or 110 grams of butter would be blended with four ounces of flour (just over half a cup).

2- Melt the butter. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom saucepan until it foams and bubbles. 

3- Add the flour. Add the flour all at once, whisking constantly until the two are combined and a smooth consistency has formed. 

4- Continue stirring. Cook the mixture for at least 2 to 3minutes. At this point, you have a blond (or white) roux, which is used to thicken soups or sauces like bechamel or veloute.

5- Cook further for gravies. Cooking further, the roux will take on different characteristics, depending on how long it cooks in the pot. Between 5 and 10 minutes, the roux will develop a light brown hue and a nutty flavor, good for thickening dishes like beef stew, or adding to the stock left after roasting meat or poultry. 

6- Cook further still for Cajun. In Cajun/Creole cooking, recipes most often call for a dark brown roux, which has been cooked for 20 to 25 minutes.

7- Thicken. To thicken your dish, cook it with the roux mixed in for at least 15 to 20 minutes. This will cook out the starchy flour flavour and bring the dish to the desired consistency.

Tips

Keep in mind that the longer roux cooks, the nuttier and richer the flavours become, but it will also lose thickening power as it darkens, which means you’ll have to make more.