[Sca-cooks] Russian food

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius.magister at verizon.net
Sun Jul 23 04:32:17 PDT 2006


On Jul 23, 2006, at 2:12 AM, Pat Griffin wrote:

> Not all gravies are roux, Stefan.  A proper roux is simply flour  
> browned in
> fat, then liquid added.  White sauces, for instance, are not roux,  
> because
> the starch is not browned.  Other gravies can use thickening  
> starches other
> than wheat flour.
>
> Lady Anne du Bosc
> Known as Mordonna The Cook
> mka Pat Griffin
> -----Original Message-----
>
> I thought gravy = roux, and vice-versa.

In the modern sense, at least, roux is generally wheat flour heated,  
even if briefly, with an oil or fat. It doesn't even have to be  
browned; you can have a "white" or "blonde" roux, and in classical  
French cookery, a roux rarely is cooked to a shade darker than peanut  
butter. However, there are fields of Creole and Cajun cookery where  
the cook prides him or herself on the ability to caramelize a roux so  
deeply it goes beyond simple brown and attains various mahogany and  
russet shades mixed with the dark-roasted-coffee browns, all without  
burning the flour (in theory, but then I think a lot of dark-roast  
coffee is simply burnt, too, at least in the US). Generally this is  
known as a "red" roux. Its thickening power is reduced as the roux  
gets darker, but you can use plenty and still thicken, plus it adds a  
distinctive flavor and color.

But flour + fat + heat = roux, flour + butter mixed to a simple paste  
= beurre manie, and many gravies are thickened with things other than  
roux (like the Southern US gravies with flour sprinkled directly in),  
and sometimes they're just deglazed, slightly reduced pan juices.

Once you get past the almond-milk-and-breadcrumb  granees and gravés  
of the Middle Ages, there's a longish period where gravies (under  
that name) seem to be largely ignored except in England as a by- 
product of roast meats, either the pan drippings or the juice from  
slicing them.

There's a rather viciously amusing little story in Brillat-Savarin's  
"Physiology of Taste" in which he boasts of stopping with some fellow  
travellers at an inn, only to discover that the innkeeper had  
recently put the last chunk of mutton to roast at the fireplace for a  
group of English travellers sitting nearby. The Englishmen were  
hungry and declined to share their roast, so instead Brillat-Savarin  
says he persuaded them to part with the gravy in the drip-pan so he  
and his friends could have scrambled eggs with gravy. He then tells  
us that he waited until no one was watching, strolled over to the  
fireplace, and repeatedly stabbed the roasting mutton with his knife,  
causing it to leak its precious bodily fluids and its purity of  
essence (okay, guys, what am I quoting there?) into the drip pan,  
leaving behind a dry husk in the shape of a leg of mutton. Which,  
Savarin says, the English travellers, being English, never noticed.  
He also says the scrambled eggs were excellent...

Adamantius (STILL at ~50% power!!)


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