10

Twice I attempted to make a roux for béchamel sauce, and twice I failed.

Both times I used a ratio of 1:1, first time I weighted the butter and the flour second time I used tablespoons. First time I continuously whisked the roux, second time I mixed it with a spoon. Both times I cooked the roux under low heat.

First time, I ended up with solid blobs of butter/flour. I added my milk and cooked it for 15 minutes, it wasn't as thick as I'd like it but I was running out of time.

Second time, I didn't see the roux become white and like wet sand, it went straight into blonde. I added the milk, and it took over one hour for it to thicken. I believe the butter separated because the milk started looking yellowish. Even after vigorous whisking it still looked yellow, and it only went back to white after the milk had been cooking for about 40 minutes.

I've read multiple websites and watched countless videos but I can't figure out what I did wrong. Any ideas?

rumtscho
  • 134,346
  • 44
  • 300
  • 545
LissaC
  • 389
  • 2
  • 8
  • 5
    btw, you want a wooden spatula for a roux, so you can scrape the pan bottom & sides as it starts to pull together. Spoon or whisk will both miss the corners. – Tetsujin Jul 25 '23 at 08:11
  • @Tetsujin that's what corner spoons are for – Chris H Jul 25 '23 at 10:46
  • @ChrisH - Never seen the point. It's like a spatula with a bit missing. They're also ridiculously expensive for what they are. 3 quid even for a cheapo. I can get 6 spatulas for that, which is about what I go through in a year. I'm not gentle with them ;) My partner is a spoon fan. I never use them… which does mean quite a crowded drawer ;) – Tetsujin Jul 25 '23 at 10:51
  • @Tetsujin fair enough. My favourite was a normal spoon until it got damaged and I reshaped it to avoid getting splinters in the food, 25 years ago – Chris H Jul 25 '23 at 12:09
  • @Tetsujin or, if you make roux regularly, it's worth investing in a roux whisk – LightBender Jul 25 '23 at 17:01
  • 1
    @LightBender - sorry, but for similar reasons to not wanting a spoon with a corner in it, I don't need a roux whisk. 40 years I've managed without, I doubt it's going to improve my technique noticeably now ;))) A roux really isn't that hard to make that it needs a dedicated tool. – Tetsujin Jul 25 '23 at 17:08
  • 2
    FWIW, there are a couple responses which recommend adding the milk in some special way. As someone who's made 100s of bechamels, that's unnecessary; just dump all the milk in at once, cold. Works fine. – FuzzyChef Jul 25 '23 at 17:13
  • 1
    I also use a regular, nonstick balloon whisk for bechamel, switching to a spatula or spoon once it gets thick. Again, has not been an issue. Folks really overthink this. – FuzzyChef Jul 25 '23 at 17:14
  • @FuzzyChef - tbh, the reason I do it bit by bit is that's the way I was taught, by the executive chef of a very successful restaurant… who just also happened to be my girlfriend at the time ;)) – Tetsujin Jul 25 '23 at 17:34
  • It probably is necessary if you're making bechamel in restaurant quantities. But definitely not if you're making 2 cups. Try just dumping it in next time. – FuzzyChef Jul 25 '23 at 17:50
  • @Tetsujin, totally fair, it's certainly not essential. I felt much like you do until I bought my flat whisk 30 years ago (for $2) to make ganache (the chocolate doesn't get stuck, like in a balloon whisk). I ended up really liking it for many things, including rouxs. The main benefit for a roux is the increased surface contact and mixing potential drastically reduces the amount of time I have to spend attending to my roux, especially when making dishes that require a dark roux. – LightBender Jul 25 '23 at 18:58
  • 1
    also note that it thickens as it cools – Aequitas Jul 26 '23 at 01:27
  • 1
    It makes absolutely no difference, at all, what instrument you use to stir. (If at any point you have to scrape anything, something's gone wrong.) – Fattie Jul 27 '23 at 11:51
  • I re-edited the "béchamel" in the title. Butter+flour is roux. Roux+milk is béchamel. The OP clearly describes that they're waiting for the mixture to thicken *after* adding milk, so this is a question about béchamel. – rumtscho Jul 27 '23 at 14:58
  • @rumtscho then better change0 the body as well to focus on the sauce. First sentence is "Twice I attempted to make a roux..." then OP proceeds talking about problems in the roux, and after that the problems with the sauce. Perhaps "Twice I attempted to make béchamel and failed..." – Luciano Jul 28 '23 at 09:35

8 Answers8

21

I'm going to give you my grandma's tip:

  • Start your béchamel with waaaaay too little milk; add maybe 25% of your milk
  • Then let it thicken (should take a few minutes, be careful not to miss it)
  • Add 25% again and wait for it to thicken, then again add the milk, etc.

You sort of quick start the reaction like this. Never failed me :)

Community
  • 1
Elozki
  • 319
  • 2
  • 8
    That's the way they teach it in cookery college too - but either way, your flour must be cooked first, or it will not work. This is also a scary method first time you ever see it, as the first bit of milk will turn it all into something like a big piece of chewing gum you think will never mix in… it does, though :) – Tetsujin Jul 25 '23 at 08:08
  • 4
    I find it even easier to add something like a splash, another splash, 10%, 10%, 20%, 30%, then the rest, to avoid lumps. The "magic roux moment" is when you add the (liquid) milk to the liquid roux, and get a soft solid, but it's easier to mix with the bulk liquid if you soften it first, incrementally (@Tetsujin - I reckon with more practice it could be sped up compared to my approach, but I'm typically not trying to do anything else at the same time) – Chris H Jul 25 '23 at 10:50
  • 7
    @ChrisH - yeah, tbh a roux/bechamel is not something I ever measure, a dollop of butter, a shake of flour & *some* milk, added bit by bit as I get round to it. – Tetsujin Jul 25 '23 at 10:54
  • Thank you, this seems easy enough and I'll try it next time! – LissaC Jul 25 '23 at 11:08
  • @LissaC : I do it the same way as Chris H recommended. You might want to see https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/4421/67 – Joe Jul 25 '23 at 19:25
  • As a general philosophical comment, for what possible reason could anyone want to "spend as little time as possible, how to make quicker" making roux? Why? It would be like if someone asked "When having intimate relations with my spouse, it's taking a long time, is there a way to speed things up?" – Fattie Jul 27 '23 at 11:56
  • 1
    @Fattie - tbh, with a bechamel, 15 minutes ***is*** too long ;))) Especially when it's only one of many components, all needing to be plated together. You *need* to know how long it takes & be able to repeat that every time, or something else will go wrong. – Tetsujin Jul 27 '23 at 15:42
17

It sounds to me like you aren't using enough heat. Low heat on a small burner won't even melt butter. It should take 2-3 minutes to make a roux for bechamel sauce, tops. Start with 50:50 by weight butter and flour, medium heat, as soon as the butter is melted add the flour and stir. If it's still a bit blobby add a small amount more butter or neutral oil until it loosens up. Once it's bubbly turn it down a bit and cook for a minute, then add your milk.

After you add your milk turn it way up and keep stirring (a whisk is good here) until it thickens, then turn it down. That's all there is to it.

GdD
  • 74,019
  • 3
  • 128
  • 240
  • Yes, probably too gentle. My small burner is a little more powerful - it would melt butter eventually. But I use it on full (800W nominal) until the butter is melted, turn it down when I add the flour, back up just after I start adding the milk (which I do very gradually, and in quite a light pan, so it can warm back up too quickly if I turn it up too early). – Chris H Jul 24 '23 at 10:19
  • Thank you, I'll try this next time! – LissaC Jul 25 '23 at 11:08
  • I typically start by just melting butter and then adding flour gradually until the consistency of the roux is right. – Karl Knechtel Jul 26 '23 at 03:12
  • 1
    That's one way to do it @KarlKnechtel, the only thing there is that you get an inconsistent amount of flour, if you need to be precise that's not a good thing. For most recipes it isn't that critical. – GdD Jul 26 '23 at 07:41
9

Your roux isn't getting hot enough. You need to be working over at least a medium heat. Melt the butter and wait for it to get frothy - that indicates the butter is at least 100C if not higher, Then add your flour and mix - I use a ball whisk for this but whatever you have that can really reach everywhere in the pan. Note: At this point you have a "white" roux even though the color of it is going to be yellowish. That color is coming from the butter. The "color" a roux is actually describing how toasted the flour has become. So a white roux is basically untoasted flour, a blonde roux is slightly toasted, and so forth. You'd use a darker roux for things like etouffee, gumbo, and the like. Darker roux have less thickening ability than lighter roux.

If you are making a bechamel you'd use a white roux - don't cook the flour for more than a minute or so. Add the milk in a steady stream while whisking vigourously or add it in batches whisking it smooth between each addition. Bring it up to a simmer and cook until you get the desired thickness.

Chris Rapier
  • 291
  • 1
1

In the Joy of Cooking, they recommend baking your Roux. I have found this to be extremely effective, freeing up time to do other things while the Roux bakes. When it's baking, you care way less how much time it takes!

John
  • 331
  • 3
  • 11
  • Note that the question contained some confusion about roux and bechamel. Does The Joy of Cooking actually recommend making béchamel in the oven, or does it only recommend making the roux there? – rumtscho Jul 27 '23 at 14:59
  • 1
    That seems like a roux you'd use for gumbo as opposed to a bechamel - which should be very very pale. – Chris Rapier Jul 28 '23 at 15:40
  • Sorry, my confusion. Joy of Cooking is talking about Bechamel in the oven. Not Roux. I wasn't aware of the difference until now. – John Jul 30 '23 at 03:11
1

You state that you used a 1:1 ratio both times, but that the first time you weighed and the second time you went by volume. a 1:1 ratio of butter to flour by volume does not render equal weights of the two ingredients. I'm not in my kitchen to fully verify this (and also in the UK where butter doesn't come in sticks and we don't measure it in spoonfuls) but googling for the weight in grams of a tablespoon of butter and of flour suggests that a tbs of butter is about 14g and a tbs of general purpose flour is anywhere between 7.8-10g. So if your 1:1 ration, measured in spoons did not account for that, you will have only had about 55% of the weight of flour compared to butter, and this is likely the source of your problems. You also don't say anything about the volume of milk you used. I generally use approximately 9-10ml milk to each gram of flour and butter, so for 65g each of butter and milk I use 600-650ml milk, depending on how thick I want the sauce. Given that there is a limit to the accuracy of scales I always finesse the amount of milk by eye.

I wonder if part of what allowed an over-thin sauce to thicken after an our was partly evaporation of excess liquid.

I can't comment on the colour changes as I can't really visualise them in relation to my own sauce making experience and I wonder whether there is enough difference in mild and butter between your country and mine to account for that. (I only use the highest fat milk and butter I can lay my hands on for bechamel, so it is only ever shades of yellow, never white).

Spagirl
  • 3,197
  • 9
  • 21
  • +1 but note that [Delia](https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/french/classic-white-bechamel-sauce) uses 2:1 butter:flour by weight and it works. I follow her recipe but add a little more flour and a little more milk (then loads of cheese). I think our UK butter tends to be a bit more yellow than American. – Chris H Jul 28 '23 at 15:45
  • I'll second Chris H - butter-heavy rouxes are quite common, and they work well. The milk volume is a more interesting question. 1:10 gives a quite thick sauce though, and even if the OP used 2-3 times more milk, they would have seen that sudden moment of thickening happen before their eyes, just up to a viscosity of maybe a sauce anglaise instead of bechamel-like. This would probably have resulted in a different description. – rumtscho Jul 29 '23 at 12:41
  • Delia literally defines "get it done" cooking. – Fattie Aug 03 '23 at 13:17
0

just want to share an update. I tried making bechamel again using a combination of two of the advice shared here: I cranked up the heat to medium high, and added the sauce in small batches. This definitely made it faster and easier to thicken the sauce. Thank you everyone for your tips!

LissaC
  • 389
  • 2
  • 8
-3

You're cooking it way, way too quickly.

I take about two hours to make roux.

(I've only ever made roux in Bourgogne, regions may differ.)

Fattie
  • 410
  • 1
  • 7
  • 25
  • 2
    How dark are you making your roux for bechamel? It's supposed to be a very pale sauce. This isn't for gumbo or anything like that. – Chris Rapier Jul 28 '23 at 15:40
-3

Roux is nothing than a thick flour and butter mixture. I would use much more flour than butter. It needs to be really thick. Try using three to five spoonfuls of flour to one spoonful of butter. It should be thick like porridge.

If you cook the roux it becomes brown and you make a brown sauce. The roux is the thickener. You can then add whatever stock you want. It is very versatile. The addition of diary takes your roux and gives you a beschamel. If you add some grated cheese you get a Mornay.

You add your stock bit-by-bit. Keep stirring and keep an eye on it. Keep adding stock in batches until you have the amount you want at the consistency you require. The thickness of the soup and the lightness or heaviness of the flavors is of course the cooks prerogative, but your roux should be really thick. It is just melted butter with a good bit of flour added to it, but it has to be really thick, it is thickening a whole portion of soup.

Neil Meyer
  • 4,573
  • 8
  • 35
  • 58