Roux is the two-ingredient technique underneath a shocking amount of great cooking: equal parts butter and flour, cooked together, ready to thicken anything from mac and cheese to gumbo. It takes five minutes to learn and a lifetime of dinners to appreciate. If sauces have ever intimidated you, this is the wall coming down.
The Ratio and the Method
One cup butter, one cup flour — equal parts by volume is the kitchen shorthand that works. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, add the flour all at once, and whisk into a smooth paste. Then keep cooking and whisking: the raw flour taste needs at least two to three minutes to cook out, and where you stop after that determines what your roux can do.
The Color Spectrum
White roux (2–3 minutes, barely colored) has maximum thickening power — this is béchamel and cream-sauce territory. Blond roux (4–6 minutes, pale gold, smells like popcorn) suits veloutés and gravies. Brown and dark roux (10–30+ minutes of patient stirring, from peanut butter to dark chocolate colored) trade thickening power for deep, nutty flavor — the soul of gumbo. The darker you go, the more constant the whisking; a burned roux is bitter and unsalvageable, so when you see black specks, start over.
The Temperature Rule
Here is the lump-prevention law: hot roux, cold liquid — or cold roux, hot liquid. Opposites, always. Whisk cold milk gradually into hot roux, or whisk knobs of cold roux into simmering stock. Same-temperature meetings are where lumps are born. Then simmer at least a few minutes: a roux-thickened sauce reaches full thickness only at a simmer, so judge it there, not before.
Make It Ahead
Roux keeps beautifully: refrigerate it for weeks or freeze it in ice-cube trays and drop frozen cubes straight into simmering liquids all winter. One Sunday batch is a season of gravies.
Where You’ll Use It
Start with my quick béchamel — roux’s most famous child — then graduate to pan gravies, chowders like potato leek soup thickening, and cheese sauces.
FAQ
Can I use oil instead of butter?
Yes — oil rouxs go darker without burning milk solids (that is the Cajun way). Butter brings flavor; clarified butter splits the difference.
How much roux thickens how much liquid?
Rule of thumb: about 2 tablespoons each of butter and flour thickens 1 cup of liquid to sauce consistency. Darker roux needs more.
Gluten-free roux?
Rice flour or a cup-for-cup GF blend both work — cook a little longer to lose the raw taste.
Recipe Card
How to Make a Roux
Equipment
- (Help support our site!)Sauté Pan
- (Help support our site!)Wooden Spoon
- (Help support our site!)Bowl
- (Help support our site!)Measuring Cup
Instructions
- Open 1 cup of non-salted Butter cut into slices.
- Measure 1 cup all purpose flour.
- Add butter to a heated sauté pan.
- When the butter is melted, add the flour slowly until it is all incorporated.
- Cook to desired color. The longer you cook it, the darker and more intense the flavor will become. Three types of Roux are white, blonde and brown. achieved with longer cooking times for different flavors and sauce colors.
- When adding a roux to a sauce make sure its hot to cold or hot to hot.
- If this is not followed your roux will lump up.