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EVOO vs. Butter - Page 2

post #31 of 40
6/28/06 at 9:29am
Thanks for the Back-Up
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post #32 of 40
6/28/06 at 11:15am
Lots of people around here claiming that a slurry is better or a roux is better or butter is better or oil is better. None is really "better". They all have their proper uses. I would never use a roux to thicken an Asian style sauce or stir-fry or a fruit sauce, while gravy really only tastes right and has the right consistency when made with roux. Roux is also my choice of thickener if I have to tighten a demi just a little or demi based sauces. As for the butter vs. oil. I use butter exclusively for light or blond rouxs, but never use butter for darker rouxs, I find it tends to lend a bitter, burnt taste to the finished product. To discount all other options in favor of only 1 option limits your ability to create dishes with the appropriate tastes and textures.
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post #33 of 40
6/28/06 at 11:56am
When making a roux for Espagnole sauce, I always use clarified butter and flour. It is my understanding as I follow the process for making the Espagnole sauce that the scum that I am skimming off the top of the stock mixed with the roux is the butter coming out of the sauce. So then, is not my Espagnole sauce pretty much fat free when finished? I rarely see any solidified fat in the jars that I keep in the fridge or after canning them. I thought that the butter was like a "carrier" of the starch component (flour) so that the flour would be evenly dispersed throughout the sauce thus thickening it. Is this an incorrect understanding?

When I roast a pork tenderloin in a rack in a heavy roasting pan, I always deglaze the roasting pan into a sauce pan, and just add flour to create a roux from the pork fat and flour. It seems to work pretty good, and I don't think of the resulting "sauce" as "gravy".

I cannot recall for sure, but thought that the definition of a roux was "fat and starch", so would not any combination of fat and starch make a proper roux? It would therefore seem plausible to choose which combination of fats and starch to make a roux based on the nature of the dish for which the roux is destined and the resulting taste created by the choices.

I am confident that someone will set me straight on my thinking here!

Tx,
doc
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post #34 of 40
6/28/06 at 12:05pm
You'd have to incorporate the oil like you would do for a vinaigrette in order for the sauce and the oil to not separate, I imagine. Use an immersion blender or be prepared for some heavy-duty whisking. Even so, it eventually will break, just like a vinaigrette. The addition of a small amount of mustard will help keep it together if it fits with the dish. There's an emulsifying agent naturally in butter, so it's a little easier to work into a sauce, although a re-heat might break it.

If you're doing a pan sauce for single use it might work. An alternative would be to use the EVOO as a garnish on the plated and sauced dish.
Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus!
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post #35 of 40
6/28/06 at 12:37pm
For what it's worth and just for the record.....:D The from the CIA "The New Professional Chef" 4th edition 1974 the definition of roux is :
"Roux (roo) (Fr.) Equal parts of fat and flour cooked; used to thicken sauces and gravies. Light-blonde and dark roux."

The 5th edition 1991 definition is:
"Roux (Fr.) An appareil containing equal parts of flour and fat (usually butter) used to thicken liquids. Roux is cooked to varying degrees (white, pale/blond, or brown), depending on its intended use."
I couldn't agree more unfortunately my repertoire of Asian cuisine is very insignificant.
:bounce: :D :crazy:
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post #36 of 40
6/28/06 at 2:36pm
Absolutely. One is not superior to another. Cuisines evolved due to what the land provided. Butter and wheat flour as known in the US and Europe are not so common in many other parts of the world and their cuisines would just not be the same if butter and wheat flour were used. We use cornstarch all the time. I wouldn't have it any other way.
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post #37 of 40
6/30/06 at 4:53pm
Thread Starter 
Sure, it's for health reasons. I'm been told to limit myself to Olive Oil and Canola and I'm trying to do that.
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post #38 of 40
6/30/06 at 5:05pm
Thread Starter 
Wow! Good stuff. Thanks, Greg.
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post #39 of 40
6/30/06 at 5:14pm
Thread Starter 
Most of my favorite dishes, in fact almost all of them now that I think about it, call for dark rouxs - French Onion Soup, for example. Most of those recipes call for butter but it sounds like that's not gonna be much of a problem.

I feel better already.:)
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post #40 of 40
7/2/06 at 4:45pm
Ok..editing furiously on this end. I dont like to get outside edited. Thanks.

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