It all began with a roux! Or so the song goes. Don’t believe me? Well, just listen

For us down here in the land of gators and crawfish, a roux is the beginning for many meals. It’s how you use said roux that makes the meal. It’s something you have to practice before you get it right every single time.

Sure you can use powdered or bottled roux, and I have. But nothing tastes the same as one from scratch.

Let’s start at the beginning. What is a roux? A mixture of flour and oil. That’s it. It’s used for binding, thickening and flavor. The period of time you cook it determines it’s color, how much of a thickener it is and the type of flavor it has.

There are three main types of roux.

White, or blond, usually made with flour and butter. Cooked only until the flour taste is gone. It is a heavy thickener.

Peanut butter, or med, roux, usually made with meat fat, or vegetable oil, and flour. This is just what it seems to be, a medium thickener with a medium color.

Then there is the dark roux. Meat fat, or vegetable oil, and flour again but cooked a long time. It’s the color of a dark chocolate bar and def has nutty, chocolate undertones. It’s a good roux to practice and to experiment with different meat fats, duck and bacon fat are two of my favorite bases to start with. A dark roux is the thinnest roux and barely thickens your dish.

To begin you want your ingredients to be fairly equal, 1:1. Though I use a bit more flour than oil. You’ll need a heavy pan, I use cast iron. Now, you’ll need to find time, lots of time. You will have to stand and stir the entire time you make a roux. No walking off, no distractions. It can go from med to burnt pretty fast. Just remember to adjust your heat as needed and even remove from the fire if needed if you think it’s getting too hot too fast.

Start on med heat, add your oil, then your flour. Combine well. Keep checking your heat. It will seem like a long time before you get from thick blond to a looser med peanut butter color. Stay with it, just keep stirring. Again, check your heat….can you tell my teacher repeated that to me often? No shame in dropping the flame, better a longer stirring time than burnt roux!

This is a medium, or peanut butter, roux. A few shades lighter and darker, yep, still a peanut butter roux.

At this point you can either add your trinity (that’s onions, celery and peppers y’all) and continue with your cooking, or remove from the heat, let cool and put in an air tight bowl to use later. Personally, I’ve never stored it as I make it fresh at the beginning of my Gumbo.

The amounts of flour and oil is based on how much you are cooking. Generally the rule of thumb is:

1 cup vegetable oil and 1 cup flour =

6 cups stock to a thick brown sauce consistency.

8 cups stock to a thick gumbo consistency.

10 cups stock to a medium gumbo consistency.

12 cups stock to a light gumbo consistency.

Oh and those ain’t burnt flakes in my roux, I had already added some seasoning before I remembered to take a pic.

Tags: Gumbo, NOLA, Roux

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