How to Thicken Gravies and Sauces Like a Chef
As the silent x in its name implies, Roux is an essential core of the French cooking method. It’s the base thickening agent for three classic French mother sauces and the foundation for countless recipes. Many cooks and chefs agree that Roux is the alpha “the beginning” of many great sauces and gravy. It is also a staple of many Cajun and Creole recipes tied to Louisiana’s history and traditions, widely known as being rooted deep in French culinary influences.
Roux as An Alternative to Cornstarch
Many cooks may already know about thickening sauces and gravies with cornstarch – Mixing one tablespoon of the white powdery substance with one tablespoon of cold water to make a slurry for blending into each cup of liquid to make a medium-thick sauce.
If you have someone in the family with a gluten allergy, intolerance, or sensitivity, or for someone with celiac disease, cornstarch is an essential pantry staple to substitute for wheat-based flour as a thickening agent.
Cornstarch isn’t your only option to use as a gluten-free thickener.
When thickening gravy, soup, and other sauce-based recipes like casseroles and many Cajun and Creole dishes, making a gluten-free roux (a mixture of gluten-free flour and fat) as a base will add extra creaminess and density, which, in turn, helps incorporate the other fatty ingredients into the finished product.
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The Importance of a Roux…
Learning to make roux adds another technique to your cooking skills, which allows you to thicken various dishes as a chef would.
Many years ago, it was one of the first methods I learned to cook, adding it to milk or stock to make things like gravies and creamy bases for soups and casseroles. But after tasting the cooked butter and flour mixture straight from the pan, it only tasted like a nearly flavorless, greasy, thickened paste.
Initially, I didn’t understand the sophistication of the roux.
It wasn’t until the pasty mixture was added to the liquid that the experimentation of cooking with it made sense.
That fantastic discovery sparked my curiosity about what more I could do with it.
Through cooking trials, I learned that whisking this “paste” into a simple liquid like milk, mixing in some cheese, and a dash of fresh ground nutmeg could suddenly transform what began as an experiment into something wildly delicious, like super creamy and flavorful mac and cheese.
That’s when I fell in love with the puffy paste base made from butter and flour.
Finally, I got it – the toasty, buttery, nutty-tasting roux made everything noticeably better. It was about its magical powers to incorporate and bind ingredients into a heavenly homogeneous sauce, gravy, or soup.
For that incorporation to happen, everything depended upon…
Keep reading all about Making Gluten-Free Roux in my Living Fully Nourished post.
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Paying tribute...
The idea for documenting this thickening method for making variations of roux came to me while making Crawfish and Shrimp Étouffée from my previous post. As it often happens, when I’m working (cooking), I reflect on memories from years of doing the same alongside my mother and grandmothers in their kitchens. But I never remember them calling this method for thickening gravies and sauces “making a roux.” Instead, it was just part of putting together whatever dish we cooked.
Growing up in a family of primarily German descendant cooks (on both sides), homecooked meals were everyday occurrences—meals made from memory without cookbooks. Instead, recipes, if any existed, were hand-written on three-by-five recipe cards, recording lists of ingredients with scant amounts and important notes for making the foods that were regularly taught by doing as other home cooks before any of us had done for years.
The Dawn of a New Era…
It wasn’t until I got into the public school’s seventh-grade home economics class that I heard the term “roux” ever used. But that’s not to discredit the side-by-side tutorials on cooking that I learned at home. I am blessed to have spent those times in the kitchen with the women in my family.
Those women whom I appreciate to this day (and probably more than they could ever imagine) for making time amidst busy schedules of prepping food and timely dinners. For taking the time to teach me, an impatient kid with a short attention span, how to cook with what was on hand.
Whether you’re new to gluten-free cooking at home or have been at it for years, I hope this post about making the kitchen basic called roux inspires you as it has me (forever a student) to start experimenting with all the ways of using a roux to make something fabulously delicious.
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How to Make a Gluten-Free Roux
EQUIPMENT
- Saucepan or Skillet
- Utensils (Whisk, Measuring Cups & Spoons, Rubber Spatula or Large Spoon)
INGREDIENTS
Light Sauce
- 1 ½ ounces butter or - may substitute, Neutral Oil, Lard, or Fat drippings
- 1 ½ ounces gluten-free All-Purpose Flour
Medium Sauce
- 2 ounces butter or - may substitute, Neutral Oil, Lard, or Fat drippings
- 2 ounces gluten-free All-Purpose Flour
Heavy Sauce
- 3 ounces butter or - may substitute, Neutral Oil, Lard, or Fat drippings
- 3 ounces gluten-free All-Purpose Flour
INSTRUCTIONS
The Stages of Cooking a Butter or Neutral Oil Roux
- White Roux - Cook for 1 to 2 minutes: When done, a white roux mixture will be very light in color and look slightly puffy. Used white roux for making white sauces like sausage gravy or bechamel sauce, and it’s the perfect thickener for mac and cheese.Blond Roux – Cook for about 3 minutes: As the butter and flour fully incorporate, a blond roux mixture will smell almost nutty, and the appearance will also look puffy. This roux is an excellent base for lighter sauces like velouté, the sauce for Étouffée, or light gravies.Light Brown Roux – Cook for 5 to 8 minutes: At this stage, the roux becomes darker with a color close to the color of peanut butter after toasting and cooking. It is perfect for making savory sauces and thicker gravies.Dark Brown Roux – Cook for up to 20+ minutes of gentle cooking: The darkest roux. This deep dark brown thickener is excellent for making Cajun and Creole gumbos and stews. Because of its long cook time, you’ll want to use clarified butter, ghee, lard, or a high smoke point oil instead of fresh butter pats, so the oil is less likely to become bitter or burn.
How to Make the Roux
- Melt butter (Neutral Oil, Lard, or Fat drippings) in a medium-sized saucepan or skillet over medium-low heat.
- Whisk the flour into the butter or oil, allowing it to simmer to cook the flour.
To make Gravy or Sauce
- Incorporate the cooked roux by whisking it into 4 cups (liquid measurement), such as hot milk or stock, to make gravy or sauce or stir it into soups or stews to thicken them. Once thickened, the last step is to season it according to your recipe or taste.
YOUR OWN NOTES
KITCHEN NOTES
Nutrition
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(Nutritional values are an approximation. Actual nutritional values may vary due to preparation techniques, variations related to suppliers, regional and seasonal differences, or rounding.)
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