Roux is a cooked mixture of fat and flour and a wonderful thickener for a wide variety of soups and sauces. It can be made with almost any sort of fat but the most common combination is unsalted butter and plain flour. The flour need only be just cooked for the roux to achieve its thickening powers. Sometimes longer cook times are called for in order to change the colour and flavour of the finished product however.

Roux

Ingredients

• 1 part unsalted butter (or other fat)
• 1 part flour

Directions

1. Melt butter over medium heat.
2. Stir in flour.
3. For a light roux, cook, stirring frequently, for about a minute. Just enough time to cook the flour. For a darker roux, continue cooking until desired colour is achieved.