I started my week with snow on the ground, I celebrated by eating cupcakes. Hope you are enjoying our last week of January. It’s time for another Nerd Word…
roux |roō|
noun ( pl. same)
a mixture of fat (esp. butter) and starch used in making sauces.
This week’s cooking term is a common sauce-making technique. The purpose of a roux is to incorporate starch into a sauce. This particular method preheats the starch separately in fat in order to create a roux. Any type of starch combined with any form of fat is considered a roux, though in French cooking the standard pair consist of butter and flour. Traditional French cooking requires that the cook carefully heat equal parts of flour and butter in a pan until the mixture reaches one of three varying final stages.
a. The mixture has been cooked to a point where all it’s moisture has been cooked out while the flour remains white.
b. The flour acquires a light yellow color.
c. The flour becomes a distinctive shade of brown.
After reaching it’s intended stage the roux is added to the sauce as to thicken it and provide a smooth texture.
Happy Wednesday to you all!
Sincerely,
Pedantic Foodie