Here's How to Make a Roux, According to Isaac Toups

The Basics

• A roux is almost always a 1:1 fat-to-flour ratio. Most Toups recipes call for ¼ cup of each.
• Cook over medium heat, stirring almost constantly.
• Use a thick-bottomed pot — Dutch oven or cast iron skillet — for even heat. The biggest enemy (other than inattention) is a pan with a hot spot.
• The darker a roux gets, the less thickening power it has (likely from protein denaturing in the flour).
• Chop your trinity (onion, bell pepper, celery) before starting, so it's ready to hit the pan the second the roux reaches color.

White Roux

Toups' position: DO. NOT. MAKE. IT.

White roux is just cold fat and cold flour — uncooked. Some old-school recipes call for it, but Toups never does: when the dish is done, you can still taste the raw flour.

Blonde Roux

Makes ¼ cup.

Base for béchamel, white gravy, cream sauce, or any cheese sauce. Use it anytime you're thickening dairy. With butter it's fine to run slightly fat-heavy since butter loses weight as water cooks out.

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour

Instructions

1. Melt and settle the butter — In a Dutch oven or heavy skillet over medium heat, heat the butter until it melts and then stops bubbling. Watch carefully; don't let it brown. Sediment (milk solids) will collect at the bottom. Some people scoop them out, but taste them first — they're delicious. Don't throw them away.
2. Add flour and cook — Once the butter stops bubbling, dump the flour in (no need to sprinkle it like it's precious). Stir well to combine. Cook 1–2 minutes, stirring often, until the roux darkens by one shade and starts to smell nutty.

Brick Roux

Makes ¾ cup.

Blonde roux cooked with tomato paste. Toups uses it mostly for couvillion (a rich seafood stew his Maw Maw made) and a modified version for his crawfish bisque. (His dad uses V8 instead of tomato paste — "but he's nuts.")

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• ½ cup tomato paste

Instructions

1. Make a blonde roux — In a Dutch oven or heavy skillet over medium heat, make a blonde roux with the butter and flour as directed above.
2. Caramelize the tomato paste — Once the roux is ready, add the tomato paste. Stir it in and let it caramelize until it starts sticking to the bottom. Smash the tomato paste evenly across the bottom of the pot to increase the surface area caramelized by the heat. About 10 minutes total; result is a brick-red roux with a charred tomato flavor.

Dark (Caramel-Colored) Roux

Makes 6 tablespoons.

"The stuff of Cajun legend. The difference between gumbo and '…that's a gumbo!'" Toups aims for mahogany or rich milk-chocolate color.

Ingredients

• ¼ cup grapeseed oil (or peanut, refined avocado, or vegetable oil — not butter)
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour

Instructions

1. Pick the right fat — Do NOT use butter; it will burn, taste bitter, and ruin the dish. Grapeseed oil is preferred for its high smoke point. Peanut or refined avocado oil also works — avocado has the highest smoke point of any oil Toups has found. Plain vegetable oil is fine too.
2. First-timer pace — Turn the heat down and go low and slow. Settle in: expect about 45 minutes of constant stirring.
3. Stir relentlessly — Use a long-handled wooden spoon (spatula-style with a flat edge is best) to save your knuckles from the heat and to scrape the bottom and edges thoroughly. Any burned spot ruins the whole batch.
4. Pull at the right color — Cook to mahogany or rich milk-chocolate color. The difference between great dark roux and burnt garbage is only a minute. If it burns — even a little — throw it all out and start over. But don't cry about it.
5. Drop the trinity immediately — Have your chopped trinity ready so it hits the pan the second the color is right.

Notes

• How to tell if it's burned — No matter how dark a roux gets, if it's still good it won't smell acrid. The nose is the tell.
• Old saying — "If you haven't burned a roux, you've never made one."
• Source book — Excerpted from Chasing the Gator by Isaac Toups (Little, Brown, 2018).

Tags: #recipe #sauces #cajun #louisiana #roux #gumbo #base #technique