the.com/roux
flour and fat, cooked until they stop being flour and fat and start being flavor.
means a paste of fat and flour cooked together, used to thicken sauces and soups and give them body.
from french, from roux meaning reddish-brown, first written down in 17th-century french cookbooks as the base for sauces like bechamel.
color scalewhite, blond, brown, and dark all mean different things
darker equalsmore flavor, less thickening power, oddly enough
cajun versioncooked nearly black, closer to candy-making than sauce
ratio ruleclassically equal parts fat and flour by weight
for instance
gumbo roux — cajun cooks toast it dark brown for 45 minutes, stirring constantly
bechamel — french mother sauce built on a pale white roux since the 1650s
louisiana etouffee — relies on a medium roux the color of peanut butter