Brown and White Thickening, or Roux.—It is of great
importance for vegetarians always to have on hand a fairly
good stock of white and brown roux, as it is a great saving
both of time and money. As roux will keep good for weeks,
and even months, there is no fear of waste in making a
quantity at a time. Take a pound of flour, with a spoonful or
two over; see that it is thoroughly dry, and then sift it. Next
take a pound of butter and squeeze it in a cloth so as as much
as possible to extract all the moisture from it. Next take a
stew-pan—an enamelled one is best—and melt the butter till
it runs to oil. It will now be found that, although the bulk
of the butter looks like oil, a certain amount of froth will rise
to the top. This must be carefully skimmed off. Continue
to expose the butter to a gentle heat till the scum ceases to
rise. Now pour off the oiled butter very gently into a basin till
you come to some dregs. These should be thrown away, or,
at any rate, not used in making the roux. Now mix the
pound of dried and sifted flour with the oiled butter, which is
what the French cooks call clarified butter. Place it back in
the stew-pan, put the stew-pan over a tolerably good fire, but
not too fierce, as there is a danger of its burning. With a
wooden spoon keep stirring this mixture, and keep scraping
the bottom of the stew-pan, first in one place and then in
another, being specially careful of the edges, to prevent its
burning. Gradually the mixture will begin to turn colour. As
soon as this turn of colour is perceptible take out half and put it
in a basin. This is the white roux, viz., flour cooked in butter
but not discoloured beyond a very trifling amount. Keep the
stew-pan on the fire, and go on stirring the remainder, which
will get gradually darker and darker in colour. As soon as
the colour is that of light chocolate remove the stew-pan from
the fire altogether, but still continue scraping and stirring
for a few minutes longer, as the enamel retains the heat to
such an extent that it will sometimes burn after it has been
removed from the fire. It is important not to have the
mixture too dark, and it will be found by experience that it
gets darker after the stew-pan has been removed from the fire.
When we say light chocolate we refer to the colour of a cake
of chocolate that has been broken. The inside is the colour, not
the outside. It is advisable sometimes to have by you ready
a large slice of onion, and if you think it is dark enough you
can throw this in and immediately by this means slacken the
heat. Pour the brown roux into a separate basin, and put
them by for use.
In the houses of most vegetarians more white roux will be
used than brown, consequently more than half should be removed
if this is the case when the roux first commences to
turn colour. When the brown roux gets cold it has all the
appearance of chocolate, and when you use it it is best to
scrape off the quantity you require with a spoon, and not add
it to soups or sauces in one lump.
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