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Is it OK to replace the butter in the roux with margarine? Will it still worked the same? May not be traditional, but could it be done?

Neil Meyer
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  • I am voting to reopen due to the nuanced difference of oils vs margarine. Margarine is an extraordinarily unhealthy product backed by lots of evidence, while vegetable seed oils while still harmful are significantly less harmful than margarine. I feel uncomfortable lumping them together, and would prefer to keep the answers distinguished allowing an answer to address how harmful margarine is in the answer. – Escoce Jun 21 '23 at 00:44
  • I've used margarine for a roux and it worked fine, but be aware that margarine in the US is regulated and must contain at least 80% fat (similar to butter), while in other places it might have more water. I'm not sure how/if the additional water would affect a roux, but otherwise the linked question covers the answer to this. – Esther Jun 21 '23 at 15:21
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    @Escoce stating that margarine is "harmful" (or, for that matter, that other oils are) is very much "nutritional advice" rather than food safety, and is something that this community avoids. – Esther Jun 21 '23 at 15:21
  • @Esther understood, but we also don't promote cooking with apple seeds either. Avoiding Margarine isn't just nutritional advice, it's advice to avoid poison. Truth be told, it's amazing it hasn't been banned from shelves the same way transfats have, it's documented as almost equally bad. – Escoce Jun 21 '23 at 15:24
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    @Escoce not really, it is definitely not going to kill you in the short term (on the order of days), which makes it not food safety but rather nutritional advice. – Esther Jun 21 '23 at 15:25
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    Anyway @Escoce that's not the question here, the question is "can we make roux with margarine?", not "should we eat it?". The answer to the linked question covers (full-fat) margarine as well as oil – Chris H Jun 22 '23 at 08:15
  • (partly @Esther) the term "margarine" in the EU (and I believe the UK, though it's rarely used on packaging here) also requires 80% fat or more, unless prefixed with "reduced fat", "low fat" or equivalent. A lot of similar products might be colloquially called margarine but are sold as "sunflower spread", "olive spread" (in which little of the oil is actually olive oil). Regulations for those aren't as tight. I have made roux with reduced fat spread, but not by choice - I'd use oil if I wasn't using butter – Chris H Jun 22 '23 at 08:21

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