Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I almost always have a problem when making a roux with butter. Part of the problem may be my laziness in that I'll use unsalted butter from the fridge, not clarified butter. And I usually try for a 1:1 ratio, though it is by "eye". It all starts off good with the butter melted, the flour scattered over and stirred in, usually on a heavy steel pan over a low to medium heat. Foam appears and settles, then with butter, it starts to look a bit like it breaks with white bits or particles appearing. Adding more butter or flour (tried both individually) does not seem to remedy. I am puzzled because many things I enjoy require a roux. Usually these days I cheat, if possible. I use bacon grease, which I love, so long as it will not conflict with the final product. Same as above, froth, subside, and then - all is good. Butter, not so much.

Now my recent use of roux has been for hamburger gravy. An homage to my father's cooking as a child. However, I use fresh mushrooms from the local market, I saute my diced onions and I sprinkle a few red pepper flakes, just for a little kick. A bacon grease roux works fine here.

But now I need to make Bechamel and Mornay sauces. Not so difficult, but that danged roux. And I don't feel I can resort to bacon grease unless the end product has bacon or pork in it.

Any ideas why I my roux looks like it breaks and starts dropping white flecks?

Not sure why it would break. Are you doing 1:1 by weight or volume? AFAIK, it should be by weight. I've not made a huge number of rouxs (hmmm), but have either been lucky or good (I vote luck!) and haven't had a lot of trouble, other when the heat was too high or the pan too large.

You could try doing it in a pressure cooker and see how that works out.

I always eyeball my 1:1 ratios for roux as well. I've noticed I need to whisk vigorously to get all the butter bits incorporated, and then bubble the roux before I add liquid. I don't bother to clarify the butter. I wonder if the water content in your butter has something to do with it???

Tatoosh,

It sounds like there's something off about your butter. Or your flour?

Roux should be easy. Heck, I don't even measure; I just add until it's "thick enough" and stir for a long time.

Paul, thank you. Like I said, this a "by the eye" sort of operation, usually. Growing up in the rural Midwest, flour as a thickener was common. But I haven't done scale thing, probably because I don't have good "small weights" scale. So just the old eyeball. And it does foam up nicely. But with butter, runny and white flecks, bacon grease and it is no problemo!

That said, I LOVE the idea of a mass production, pressure cooker roux. The same people had a similar post about doing it with milk solids and oil. I do have a pressure cooker in the 5 liter range, but no mason jars, which seem to be banned (kidding) or at least very very uncommon. But a standard glass jar with a screw on top should work, right? I have those and will try one or two of them. I think the page you cited said the roux will keep a month in the refrigerator. That would be great. So thank you, thank you, thank you! We will experiment with this. It is in line with my "roasted garlic paste" we make at home every few weeks to simplify garlic in many dishes without worrying about burning, since it can be added a bit later and with other ingredients.

Trinket, we don't whisk usually, we do stir vigorously with a wooden spoon usually and spank any naughty lumps we find. The butter is imported from New Zealand (we are in the Philippines which produces almost zero butter) and it seems fine, plus would not heating the roux remove most water? So apparently clarifying the butter is not "essential" to a roux, I take it. That's good because I've been way to lazy to do that, though I plan to do it with my culinary student bro-in-law in the fairly near future so he knows the process and what result he is looking for.

Thanks everyone!

Dang me, Dang me! They ought'a take a rope and hang me! Roux is easy. Like falling off a hay wagon or getting caught by a soaker wave when you're at the beach. And with most oils except butter it is not that problematic for me.

So TheFuzzy, I think you are almost certainly right. But it buggers me what could be wrong with New Zealand imported butter. I mean, New Zealand! They are pretty quality conscious there. I will shift brands next shopping trip and see what happens. But all the butters are from New Zealand except one Queensland butter from Australia ... I think.

And I will play around with Paul's pointer toward pressure cooker roux, 'cause I do just adore grabbing a jar from the fridge and glopping a big spoonful of whatever down on the skillet: bacon grease, roasted garlic paste, or bulk roux!

Toosh,

I'm with Trinket in guessing the milk solids in your butter may be causing problems. The white particles are milk solids. The use of whole butter is also throwing off the proportions which should be 1:1 by weight.

It should take less than 5 minutes to separate your butter into fat, milk solids and liquid. Remove the foam and the liquid at the bottom. Use about 1.25 parts of flour to 1 part of clarified butter.

I'll bet you a San Miguel that this will solve your problems.

Tim

Tim, thank you for your insights. So probably the butter in your estimation and milk solids causing the heart ache? I will do a simple clarified butter in a bit and see. I think it has to be the butter for some odd, nefarious reason.

Paul, we did the first attempt at bulk roux in a pressure cooker. It did not turn out as nice as the roux they showed in the photo of the website you mentioned. Comments by others on that page noted the 90 minutes they cooked their roux in the pressure cooker seemed rather extreme plus the roux I want is not a brun roux, but a blond roux or similar. So we melted the butter, but did not clarify it. we mixed on 1:1 basis by weight the flour and butter, then put in a seal-able glass jar and cooked for 45 minutes. At the end of 45 minutes we extracted the jar and found some of the butter had separated and the core of the flour/roux mixture was getting hard. We remixed the butter and flour, which incorporated back in easily. It still had a very pronounced uncooked flour taste so we put back on for another 45 minutes. Second time the roux did not show any signs of separation, but was nowhere near the brun roux shown in the photo of the website that started this.

So I "think" it will work from the pressure cooker. Clarified butter, at least in my case, is probably a better choice or perhaps a different oil. We will keep playing with it to see what works.

Thanks to everyone!

To be fair, I say the same thing about Hollandaise.

Anyway, it's certainly something about your ingredients. I've made roux here without clarifying the butter first, and I don't get white flecks, just little black specks from the burned milk solids. In an etouffee, I can ignore those.

Since you've tried it with other oils, it's not your flour. So that leaves the butter. Maybe New Zealand butter has more solids in it than what I'm used to. Maybe they mix it with sheep's milk. No idea.

Well, you guys were correct. The problem was the butter. Regardless of point of origination, it doesn't cut it unless clarified. Or as close as I can get to clarified on short notice.

We heated the butter, it started to separate and then, kapow! It starts doing a sort of temperamental Vesuvius thing. I turn the heat as low as possible, finally move it to a small electric hob that goes very low and still wants to erupt occasionally. So I let it settle though it never truly clarified. However a good portion of the milk solids did drop to the bottom. I skimmed the top, which had a somewhat odd foam on top, strained the rest through muslin until we got to the major portion of the milk solids.

The results were a slightly cloudy butter that will make a roux without a problem. No breaking down, no flecks. And I can toast it to a brun if necessary. Hoorah! Since clarified butter stores well, I will make a small container worth and keep it on hand for roux duties.

Tatoosh