SC - RE: benes yfryed - redaction

[kat]

> >Remove the roast when done, let it stand on the counter for 10-20 minutes
> >while you rescue the pan drippings for gravy, slice at the end of the time
> >period, and serve.  YUM.  Gravy, for me, is taking the pan, deglazing with
> >wine, using a non-period roux and serving.
> 
> Pray tell, what does this last sentence mean? What is deglazing? What is
> a roux?

Deglazing the pan is the act of pouring some liquid (wine usually or stock)
into the hot pan over a burner and using it to pull up the juices and drippings
from the pan.  Often this means a little scraping, but if it's nice and hot
this will also let much of the browned on bits melt back into the liquid.
You do this to get the taste of the juices into your gravy.  If the meat
was fatty, pour off the fat first.

Roux's are a bit more complicated, mostly because what mom does is very
different from what the classical french who gave it a name do.  I'm guessing
that the above was refering to the mom form, but here's both.....

A mom Roux (prounounced Roo, same as my name) is a mixture of a thickening agent
(flour, cornstarch, arrowroot) and some liquid.  It's combined until
smooth.  you then add some of the hot liquid from the pan to make sure
it stays smooth before pouring it in and letting it thicken your sauce
with a bit more stirring and cooking.  This is mom cooking theory.

NOW, I have been told that while this is the roux I was taught, the PROPER way
involves a fat (butter usually) and the flour or starch - you melt the
butter in the pan, stir in the flour and cook briefly - how long depends on
what you are making - a light roux for white sauces (cheese sauces and such) or
a darker one for darker sauces.  This is classical french cooking theory.
My understanding of the cooking of the starch here is to get the starch taste
out of it - have you ever  had floury gravy?  this process is supposed to get
rid of that taste.

You also do similar things in soups at times - my favorite french onion
soup recipe calls for sauteeing the onions in a mix of butter and olive 
oil almost forever, and then adding some flour to the mix and cooking it for
a couple moments - this will bind the soup, thicken it a bit and the cooking
before adding the broth is supposed to take the floury taste out.

My mom always used the first method - some flour and water in a tupperware 
tub, shake until smooth, add to gravy.  I've found that adding some of the hot
liquid in first keeps it from lumping up.  I primarily use the latter 
method when I'm making cheese sauces and other kinds of more formal sauces.

Julia Child's "The Way to Cook" gives examples of why you might want to
use either kind of Roux, but in the end it's preference and ease of
cooking.  Since after I deglaze the pan I always transfer the liquid to
a real frying pan anyway, either would work.

Ruadh (yes, that's prounounced Roo, no matter how much "Rude" sounds correct :-)
- -- 
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    Becca Tants, aka Roo, Lady Caitlen Ruadh, Delftwood, AEthelmearc, East
    becca at servtech.com                http://www.servtech.com/public/becca 
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