How to Make Roux

How to make roux? The short version is fat plus starch, cookout the protein and add a cold liquid. The longer you cook it the darker it becomes, but just remember a brown roux will take twice the amount to thicken your recipe then the white or blond roux. So you will need twice as much. Brown roux is known to be in gumbos and jambalayas.

In culinary school you will find that a sauce is one of 5 components that makes up a recipe. The other four are; cooking method, ingredients, aromatic and seasonings.  So learning to make a good roux is important not only to the flavor of your food but can also save you money and be beneficial to your health.

Let take a jar of a well known Alfredo sauce in the store. Not only do you not know how long it's been sitting around on the shelf, the ingredients are; Water, Cream, Butter (Cream, Water, Salt), Parmesan Cheese (Part-Skim Milk, Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Enzyme Modified Liquid Egg Product (Egg Yolks, Salt, Phospholipase), Modified Food Starch, Soybean Oil, Contains Less Than 2% of: Romano Cheese (Part-Skim Cow's Milk, Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Salt, Sugar, Dehydrated Whey, Disosium Phosphate-Dihydrate, Granular And Parmesan Cheese (Milk, Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Xanthan Gum, Monosodium Glutamate, Garlic, Spice (Black Pepper), Flavoring (Contains Malt Extract), Yeast Extract, Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Sodium Phosphate, Lactic Acid, Wine, Enzymes, Caramel Color, Disodium Phosphate, Anhydrous Milkfat

Why do you want all those chemicals when you can make your own Alfredo sauce with 5 ingredients? You need to start with a white sauce. Your fat is melted butter, remember as you melt the butter you don't want it to separate, make sure to keep it yellow next add in the flour a little at a time to make a paste. Cook out the proteins means to keep it on a low heat until it bubbles and turns white. If you smell a nutty smell the proteins are cooked out. This process prevents the sauce from becoming lumpy. Next add cold milk and stir until thickens add in the garlic (2 cloves, minced) and gradually add in the Parmesan cheese (1 1/2 cups) until melted. Other recipes exclude the flour and use 1 cup whipping cream instead.

Make homemade mac n cheese. Use the same white roux with cheddar cheese and a splash of lemon juice to keep the cheese from becoming stringy.
You can even make gravy from roux.