[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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