# White and blond roux

> Same weight of butter and flour, medium heat, and you stir all the time: a roux is not left alone, but it only takes two minutes.

## The essentials

A roux is melted butter in which you cook the same amount of flour, for a minute or two. It is the base that thickens a béchamel, a gratin sauce, a blanquette, a velouté. White, you cook it just enough to remove the raw flour taste. Blond, you leave it a minute or two longer, to a biscuit colour, for more flavour.

## The one thing to know

Same weight of butter and flour, medium heat, and you stir all the time: a roux is not left alone, but it only takes two minutes.

## The method

1. Melt the butter in a pot on medium heat, without letting it colour.
2. Pour the flour in all at once and stir with a whisk or a spatula. It forms a paste that foams.
3. For a white roux: two minutes stirring, it stays pale and smells of biscuit. That is the one for béchamel.
4. For a blond roux: three to four minutes, it turns a golden straw colour. That is the one for a blanquette sauce or a velouté.
5. Then you pour the liquid over it, milk or stock, and you whisk: that is the page "Béchamel".

## The quantities

40 g of butter and 40 g of flour thicken 500 ml of liquid for a coating sauce. For a thicker sauce, for a gratin or croquettes, 50 g of each.

## How long it takes

Two to four minutes, without stopping stirring.

## If it goes wrong

It browned or smelled burnt: start again, it is 40 g of butter and two minutes, and a burnt roux gives a bitter taste to the whole sauce. It makes lumps with the liquid: it is almost always because the liquid came too fast, whisk hard or run the sauce through an immersion blender, they disappear.

## Make it tonight

A ham and pasta gratin: the roux, the béchamel on top, and the oven does the rest.

_See first : [Heat levels: high, medium, low, boiling and simmering](https://disheazy.com/bases/heat-levels)_

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Source : disheazy, https://disheazy.com/bases/white-and-blond-roux