What’s the Thick on Roux? Thickening Soups and SaucesAuthor:Soups and sauces can be thickened in a variety of ways. A sauce must the thick enough to cling to the food, but not so thick it stands up on its own. Starches are by far the most common thickening agent. Cornstarch, arrowroot, waxy maize and the ever popular, roux (roo). But what is aroux and how does it work? Roux is a cooked mixture of equal parts by weight of fat and flour. If you mix a starch with water, such as corn starch it is called a slurryHow does it work? Starches thicken by absorbing water and swelling to many times their original size. This process is called gelatinization. In order for the starch to function at its maximum, each granule of starch must be separated before heating in order to avoid lumps. If granules are not separated the starch on the outside of a lump quickly gelatinizes into a coating that prevents the liquid from reach the rest of the starch inside. This is accomplished in two ways. 1. By mixing the starch with cold water – This is used with starches such as arrowroot and corn starch.This method is not recommended for flour because it lacks flavour and has an undesirable texture. 2. By mixing the starch with fat – This is the principle of the roux. A roux must be cooked for a short period of time so the finished sauce or soup does not have the starchy taste of flour. If cooked for just a short period of time, it is called a blond roux. If cooked longer until it takes on a light brown color, it is called a brown roux. The most preferred roux in cooking is made by mixing melted butter and flour. Many cooks clarify the butter first because the liquid in whole butter tends to gelatinize some of the starch and make the roux hard to work with. A roux made with butter gives a nice rich flavour to sauces and is easy to work with. Margarine and oils can be used to make a roux as well, but because of there lack of flavour they are very seldom the top choice. Fat drippings from animals such as chicken and beef can make superior sauces. Animal fats enhance the flavour of sauce, but again must be clarified to eliminate any liquid that might cause lumping. Mixing it all together A roux can be added to the liquid or the liquid may be added to the roux.The general rules are: The liquid can be hot or cool, but not cold. A very cold liquid will solidify the fat in the roux. The roux in the same way can be warm or cold, but not hot. A hot roux could cause spattering and possibly lumps. For medium sauces and soups I use 8 ounces butter and 8 ounces flour per gallon of liquid. For home it comes out to about 1 tablespoon each per cup of liquid. Use less or more depending on how thick you like your sauce. By follow these simple steps you’ll have lump free soups and sauces for the rest of your life. About The Author Chef Richard has worked in the top fine dining restaurants in Washington State and is the author of the ebook “Chef’s Special”. You can find free recipes, informative articles and order the ebook at http://www.csrecipes.com ******** ********* We will be adding more articles. To add your favourite articles please fill in the form below. We will be happy to add them to our articles. To add to your enjoyment and please check out these other information links. For the live one on one discussion of your favourite articles on sauces or other great stories join your friends here. Are you interested in adding your article but you think your writing skills are not what they should be? Think again... What a pleasant surprise. I ran across this fabulous book. I only wish that all the text books where written this way when I was in school and college life would have been so much simpler and a whole lot easier...Just clean, down to earth information, written in every day language. Even a guy like me who flunked English can actually now enjoy writing. What a pleasure to get rid of that stigma.... So check it out here and write your article. We would be happy to publish your first work here for others to enjoy!
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