The Scratching Post: Roux In A Jar

I made Catican Bayou Super Gumbo last night to devour while we enjoyed LSU winning the National Championship game. Both were excellent.

Super Gumbo is where you put every kind of meat in the house into the mix. I used chicken, polska kielbasa, bacon, shrimp and oysters. As you can tell, I had a few pops as I was cooking. :-)

While the gumbo came out great, I learned a thing or two about buying premade roux. I won't mention the brand, since I've experienced this same thing before, but last night I found a solution. Roux is equal parts fat and flour, cooked and stirred continuously until the flour toasts in the fat and the concoction turns a delicious brown.

My lard roux takes 55 minutes, my corn oil roux about 20. It's a serious business as you can't stop whisking even for 30 seconds, or you'll burn the roux and have to start all over again. Premade roux is huge time saver. It's also only marginally adequate.

Roux in a jar comes out a lot like drywall spackle. There's some oil to it, but it's more of a paste. Even after heating, the stuff doesn't really melt. The whole point of roux is to act as an oil for sauteing vegetables. Last night, when I noticed the roux paste just sitting there, I added bacon grease to the mix and that helped a little. When I added some corn oil and stirred things around, the roux paste merged with the corn oil and finally got to work as a slurry for the veggies. Homemade roux tastes better, but this worked OK.

As my corn oil roux only takes 20 minutes, once I've finished the few jars of premade roux I've got in the pantry, I won't run that experiment again. It's homemade, corn oil roux for me from now on.

Also, Geaux Tigers!