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Roux, White and Brown, to Keep

A method for making and storing white and brown roux for later use.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Roux, White and Brown, to Keep

Ingredients

Directions

Make the white roux

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the flour and cook until it bubbles, about 1-2 minutes, without browning.

  3. Remove from heat, transfer to a small jar, cover, and store in a cool place.

Make the white sauce

  1. To make a white sauce, melt 2 tablespoons of the white roux in a saucepan.

  2. Add the milk and cook until smooth, then season to taste.

Make the brown roux

  1. For brown roux, cook the same quantities of butter and flour until dark brown, then pack in a jar.

  2. If the brown roux is not dark enough, add caramel or kitchen bouquet when making sauce.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Butter
Forms the fat base of the roux and carries flavor into the sauce.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the fat and, once cooked, lets the sauce set smooth and firm.
Milk
Liquid that hydrates the roux and swells its starch into a smooth sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour without browning it. Flour must be cooked in the fat long enough to lose its raw taste, but browning changes the flavor and thickening power. Cooking gently until it bubbles keeps the roux pale for white sauce and lets it thicken smoothly when liquid is added.

“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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