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Brown Roux

A brown roux is made by cooking clarified butter and flour until light brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Brown Roux

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

  1. Mix the flour and butter in a thick saucepan.

  2. Place it on the side of the fire or in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  3. Stir the mixture repeatedly to distribute heat evenly.

  4. Cook until it turns a fine, light brown color and smells like hazelnuts.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Clarified butter
Carries the heat evenly and adds richness and a nutty aroma as it toasts.
All-purpose flour
Its starch thickens the sauce base, and it browns and develops flavor as it cooks.

The step that matters

Stirring while the roux cooks. Flour starch settles and scorches on the hot bottom of the pan if it is not stirred often. Scorched flour tastes bitter and cannot be fixed, and even heat gives an even colour and nutty flavour.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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