# how is a roux made? how to measure flour and butter



## thecrest (Feb 9, 2013)

I've been having difficulty making a roux.  I think I am using wrong ways of measuring flour and measuring butter. 

Can anyone help and give advice? 

A recipe for a roux requires 50g of flour and 50g of butter. 

a) How do you measure 50g of flour?  Measured on a scale, or with the dry measuring cup?

b) How do you measure 50g of butter?  On a scale, or with a measuring spoon?


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## bughut (Aug 18, 2007)

: ) really?  this has to be a lark, but if not, Its a 50 ; 50 ratio. If you dont have scales, try 1tbsp butter : 1 tbsp flour.   Hows college going?

love Floyd too


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## eastshores (Oct 23, 2008)

You are dealing with units of weight, so both would be weighed. However, personally I don't think you need to get too caught up on the ratio. I've seen quotes for the ratio being anywhere from equal parts to two parts fat to flour. I've generally eyeballed the amounts looking for close to an equal ratio. If you are making a roux for say gumbo, then it is fine to have more fat because you will want to be able to move it around quickly in order to achieve a "brick red" roux with even cooking. For just application as a thickener, I've found that having a little more flour is fine, but I reserve the roux and whisk it into a hot liquid until I achieve the desired thickness. Just my thoughts on this.

I just noticed you are a culinary student. Not to be harsh, but like bughut said.. really? /img/vbsmilies/smilies/surprised.gif


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## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

Yup, students ask… um … questions, no matter the deftness, that's how we all learn, right guys? <edit - dang this auto-correct>

thecrest, there are different roux, what is it that you're making? 

Both bughut and eastshores have great advice.


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## thecrest (Feb 9, 2013)

The most basic roux, white roux.   I do not use a weigh scale to get the flour and butter measurement. I think I use less butter than flour.  Maybe that's the problem for me getting a good white roux.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

What is the problem with your roux? How do you make it?


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

Definitely you need enough butter for the flour, or of course, the whole thing will just be crumbs in the pan and won't bubble or cook, but just burn as clumps of slightly greasy flour/img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif - If you do equal parts by volume of flour and butter, you should be ok, it will be a little more liquid in that case and easier to make. If you want to follow the recipe precisely and you don't have a scale, you can go online and write in the search bar: *conversions butter flour weight volume* on google and find plenty of sites that will give you the precise equivalent of weight to volume (tablespoon, cup, etc). But you can also put the butter in, melt it over low heat, and add the flour a little at a time, mixing, till it's still homogenous and doesn't become a 3 dimensional clump.

Another trick in using roux is to heat the milk or other liquid (broth) separately, take the pot with the roux off the fire, and plunge the bottom of the pot into a dish of water to stop the cooking. Add the hot milk all at once and whisk and then proceed to cook it. Not necessary, but useful for a beginner, and prevents lumps in the sauce.

The proportions don;t have to be exact, but some will give you a thin sauce, some a thicker sauce, and it depends on what you want to use it for. To make croquettes, you want a very thick sauce, to make a sauce to pour over something, you'll want it thinner, to make a sauce to bind a vegetable dish with eggs and breadcrumbs and grated cheese to bake in the oven and then slice, you'll need a medium thickness.


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## eastshores (Oct 23, 2008)

kaneohegirlinaz said:


> Yup, students ask… um … questions, no matter the deftness, that's how me all learn, right guys?


Absolutely, and the first sign of an intelligent achiever is going to be the person that asks questions. My reply was simply aimed at the fact that in the original question they posted with a unit of weight in the question and then asked how to go about measuring it. My "really?" was more of a prod to just say.. look.. you already answered the question in your question! They should question themselves first!


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## ed buchanan (May 29, 2006)

white   blond     brown roux        on brown if flour is toasted in oven it comes out better. for the brown. Roux s made in ratio of x  to  x   .cook over low heat so as not to burn. Can be made in bulk way ahead of time for future use.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

thecrest said:


> A recipe for a roux requires 50g of flour and 50g of butter.


Grams are usually measured on a scale. A rough conversion to tablespoons which is a measure of volume not weight, would be 4 tablespoons butter and 6 tablespoons flour.


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## spammar (Jun 2, 2013)

ED BUCHANAN said:


> white blond brown roux on brown if flour is toasted in oven it comes out better. for the brown. Roux s made in ratio of x to x .cook over low heat so as not to burn. Can be made in bulk way ahead of time for future use.


and if youre going cajun dark roux its almost black its literally around 30 secs to one minute away from being inedibly burnt


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## jake t buds (May 27, 2013)

I remember Emeril judging roux color by how many beers you drink. 1 beer = light roux. 2 beers = darker, 3 beers = deep amber. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/talker.gif


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## chefdean (Jun 3, 2013)

I just measure the butter and flour by half cup, I don't do grams. I actually just follow this recipe.

http://southernfood.about.com/library/howto/htmakeroux.htm


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## thompson (Jun 5, 2013)

After embarrassing myself at work with a badly made bechamel once, I just memorised the quantities for roux and bechamel as Larousse has them, which are equal *weights* of butter and flour. For 500ml of bechamel, you would make a roux with 2 tbsp of butter and 4 of flour, which makes butter twice as dense as sieved flour. . Hope this helps.


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