The foundation for three of the French mother sauces (béchamel, velouté, and espangnole sauces) is a thickening base of flour and fat, typically butter, known as a roux. A roux is also used as the thickening component in gravy and the base in many other dishes like gumbo. In this video, Kerry Roach, Chef de Cuisine at BOKA in Seattle, shows us how to make a simple milk gravy (also known as a white sauce or béchamel). From this basic roux you are on your way to making rich and creamy gravies and sauces for your special dishes year-round! Add sausage for a scrumptious biscuits and gravy, toss in cheese for a decadent Mornay sauce, add stock and you have a velouté sauce.
Watch the short video below to learn how easy is to make a basic roux. Also, be sure to subscribe to Foodista’s Kitchen Secrets video series for more how-to cooking tips and tricks!
Video Transcription
Hi I’m Kerry, Chef de Cuisine at Boka in downtown Seattle. Now I’ll show you how to make a roux to make milk gravy. Roux, which is essentially just equal parts flour and butter. I’m going to melt the butter. Then just going to add your flour. Looking for it to absorb all the fat and it should have the consistency of wet sand. Once that cooks then you're just going to add a little bit of milk and whisk it in. As it continues to cook it will continue to thicken. It usually takes about a half an hour to cook that raw flour taste out. You don’t need to constantly stir it over that half an hour. As you will notice it is continuing to get thick so you will just keep adding a little bit of milk as you go until you get that consistency that you are looking for. And you can season this with whatever you would like.
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