SC - SC: Gravy Making

[cclark at vicon.net]

Elysant wrote:
>This discussion makes me wonder how old the "roux" method actually is.  And 
>what are the oldest methods we know of that were used for thickening sauces 
>and gravies?

There are recipes for khabis (a sweetmeat) in al-Baghdadi that say to cook
and mash some gourds or carrots and then "Put sesame-oil into a dish and
boil : then add flour, and then the [mashed veggies]. Pour on syrup until
set : then remove."

Looks to me like this is a kind of roux. Though I don't recall seeing any
recipes where it's used to thicken a sauce.

Henry of Maldon/Alex Clark