Tonight I made ham and potatoes au gratin using home-made cheese sauce. Those of you who know cooking know that the basis of a great cheese sauce is a great white sauce and the basis of a great white sauce is a great roux.
Roux is simply wheat flour and fat (usually butter) cooked together until smooth and bubbly over moderate heat. The addition of milk, soy milk, broth or a combination of the three turns a roux into a white sauce and the addition of cheese turns a white sauce into a cheese sauce.
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Typically you would use equal parts white flour and fat to make the roux and then add liquid to the desired thickness to make your sauce. But when you are using whole grain flours, this changes. Because the whole grain flour is denser, you need to reduce the ratio of flour to fat by about 1/3. So, for every tablespoon of fat, use 2/3 tablespoon of whole wheat flour. There is no measuring spoon for 2/3 tablespoon so you have to eyeball it. A bit of give and take either way will not kill your sauce – and practice makes perfect as far as roux making is concerned!
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Before attempting to make any kind of roux based recipe, you need to gather a few basic utensils:
- A nice, thick bottomed sauce pan – it’s easy to ruin a roux by burning it
- A flat ended wooden or heat-resistant plastic spoon – made for cooking
- A wire whisk
- A spoon to taste with
Then gather the ingredients for your roux and sauce:
- butter or oil, measured in tablespoons
- whole wheat flour – 2/3 tablespoon for every tablespoon of fat, approximately
- liquids – can be milk, soy milk, broth, cream – in whatever ratio you want. The richer the liquid, the richer the sauce. Have about 1 cup of liquid available for every tablespoon of fat; since it is added gradually, you stop when the sauce is as thick as you want.
- other ingredients – cheese, herbs, spices, lemon, garlic, tomato sauce or paste, ketchup, mustard – whatever you want
A word to the wise: have all your utensils and ingredients handy and ready to go! Once you start making the roux, you will be stirring constantly until your sauce is finished.
Now to make the roux: start by melting the butter over medium heat – the butter should not be crackling, spitting or turning brown. If the butter turns brown, throw it out and start over again. Once the butter is melted or nearly melted, add the flour slowly, stirring with the flat ended spoon the entire time. As you stir, make sure you scrape up any bits of flour that stick to the bottom of your pan. The roux should be smooth and shiny – no lumps and not clumpy. It should cover the bottom of your pan evenly but it should have body – when you stir it, the bottom of the pan should be exposed before the roux spreads out to cover it again. If it does not cover the bottom evenly, you probably have too much flour in it – just add a bit more fat. If it splashes when you stir or gives no resistance, or you don’t see the bottom of your pan as you stir, add a bit more flour – a sprinkle at a time – until it is smooth, shiny and even. The roux will bubble gently as you cook it. The longer you cook the roux, the smoother and more flavorful your sauce – it’s ok to cook it for a few minutes as long as you don’t stop stirring and it’s not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
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Once your roux is smooth and well cooked, it’s time to add the liquids. Stirring constantly with the spoon, pour enough liquid in to about double the amount of roux. Switch to the wire whisk and whisk until all lumps and bumps are incorporated into the liquid. Then, still whisking, add more liquid. Pour it into the pan in a steady stream, whisking constantly, and checking the thickness of your sauce as you whisk. A very gentle bubble is ok; but the sauce should never boil. Generally, the longer you cook the sauce, the thicker it will become. Keep the sauce thicker if you will be adding liquid flavoring like lemon later; thinner if you will be adding cheese.
Once you like the thickness of your sauce, it’s ready for seasoning. Remember to stir the whole time you are adding seasoning. Cheese should be added a little at a time and stirred until melted. Then taste and add more until you are satisfied. Use this technique for all the seasonings.
Keep in mind the food you will be using the sauce with when adding seasonings. If you will be covering food that is already salty (like ham) or spicy, consider making a less heavily seasoned sauce.
For my cheese sauce, I used the following ingredients:
- 8 tablespoons of butter
- 5 tablespoons of whole grain white wheat flour
- 6 cups of liquid, as follows: 1 cup half and half, one cup water, 4 cups plain soy milk
- 3 to 3 1/2 cups of cheese – equally divided between sharp cheddar and american
- 1 to 2 teaspoons of salt
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of powdered yellow mustard
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
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