The dreaded broken roux … It’s when something goes wrong in cooking gumbo, and instead of a luscious, uniform, thick roux, you end up with a separated sauce that seems to have tiny globules of flour floating around in oil. It’s totally gross, and it’s a classic broken roux. (Some would call it a separated roux.)
I used to have lots of problems with broken roux (roux’s?). I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong … I wondered if I was adding the water (some people add stock) at the wrong temperature. One article I read advised a lukewarm stock … I fiddled with that for awhile and couldn’t come up with anything like consistent results. Finally, I read somewhere that it was a myth that you should add EQUAL parts of fat and flour to make a roux. This advice said you should add more flour than fat, by anywhere from a third to a half more flour, to avoid the dreaded broken roux. I started doing this, and lo and behold, I haven’t had a broken roux since. Coincidence? Perhaps. There is art and mystery in the cooking of the gumbo.
Another important question: Is there a fix for a roux once its broken? I only found one fix for a separated roux, which is taking pre-made cold roux from “roux in a jar” (which I don’t normally use) and mixing it into the gumbo with the broken roux, and then bringing the whole thing to a boil for a few minutes. (I like Savoie’s Old Fashioned Dark Roux). I have a hunch this isn’t so much about fixing the broken roux and it is masking the broken roux. But we do what we must in such cases … And if you don’t have roux in a jar on hand, I have no other solution to offer. Sorry!
2 replies on “Fixing a broken roux for gumbo”
I always gotta have a jar or two of roux with me for emergency purposes. ‘Cause don’t nobody wanna sit around stirring roux all day, lol. Roux Dat Gumbo Base makes it SO EASY to prepare an authentic cajun roux ! Just dissolve in water and add vegetables and meat! Y’all can thank me later!
I am so grateful for your posting. I think I have a large stock pot of broken roux gumbo and 1-cup oil/ 1-cup flour was probably the issue. Everything I saw in video instruction form showed the mixture clumping up during the roux stirring cook and then re-liquifying and that never happens for me and after thirty minutes I had the same “dark apple butter” consistency roux which never melded with the stock and floated to the top with little bits of dark flour sticking to stirring spoons and side wall of stock pot. But I think you may have helped solve my mystery.