Roux

A roux is a culinary term for a thickening agent. It is made by adding equal parts of flour to a fat. I use unsalted butter to make mine, but you can use oil, shortening or bacon grease. The important thing to remember is the ratio: equal parts of flour to fat.

Traditionally, you melt the fat and add the flour stirring and cooking until the desired color is achieved. Cooking the roux first helps soften the raw flour taste. The longer you cook it, the darker and nuttier tasting it will become. Because I'm usually in a hurry, I skip this step and add the flour to softened butter and then proceed to add resulting the thick paste to hot liquids I wish to thicken. I find that as the sauce begins to thicken the flour also looses it's raw taste. Making a large batch of roux to have on hand is a big time saver! Store the roux in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

8 Tbsp of soften butter

8 Tbsp of all purpose flour (although it works just as well with gluten free flour)

1/2 tsp of salt

Mash the butter, flour and salt together and mix well. Store it in the refrigerator.