Roux's in the oven
Mar 12, 2022 15:32:18 #
The gumbo begins. 1/4 cup of butter, 1/4 cup of bacon drippings, and a 1/2 cup of veggie oil. Cup of flour. In the oven at 350° for an hour or so. Could not be easier. And just as good as if you had stood there for an hour and a half stirring and hoping that it don't burn. Seriously. You gumbo cookers have got to try this method of making your roux. Gonna do some beef chuck roast. Shrimps. And hot links. Pictures to follow.
Mar 12, 2022 16:16:06 #
Spiritof27 wrote:
The gumbo begins. 1/4 cup of butter, 1/4 cup of bacon drippings, and a 1/2 cup of veggie oil. Cup of flour. In the oven at 350° for an hour or so. Could not be easier. And just as good as if you had stood there for an hour and a half stirring and hoping that it don't burn. Seriously. You gumbo cookers have got to try this method of making your roux. Gonna do some beef chuck roast. Shrimps. And hot links. Pictures to follow.
Yum yum can’t wait. going to fix a big pork roast tomorrow yum yum 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
Mar 12, 2022 18:09:56 #
Spiritof27 wrote:
The gumbo begins. 1/4 cup of butter, 1/4 cup of bacon drippings, and a 1/2 cup of veggie oil. Cup of flour. In the oven at 350° for an hour or so. Could not be easier. And just as good as if you had stood there for an hour and a half stirring and hoping that it don't burn. Seriously. You gumbo cookers have got to try this method of making your roux. Gonna do some beef chuck roast. Shrimps. And hot links. Pictures to follow.
I’ve got it and will definitely give it a go. Thanks.
Mar 12, 2022 18:11:15 #
Spiritof27 wrote:
The gumbo begins. 1/4 cup of butter, 1/4 cup of bacon drippings, and a 1/2 cup of veggie oil. Cup of flour. In the oven at 350° for an hour or so. Could not be easier. And just as good as if you had stood there for an hour and a half stirring and hoping that it don't burn. Seriously. You gumbo cookers have got to try this method of making your roux. Gonna do some beef chuck roast. Shrimps. And hot links. Pictures to follow.
Finished roux. Beautiful chocolate brown. Smells as good as it looks. Like toast.
Mar 12, 2022 18:24:24 #
Spiritof27 wrote:
Finished roux. Beautiful chocolate brown. Smells as good as it looks. Like toast.
👍
Mar 12, 2022 18:45:30 #
Spiritof27 wrote:
Finished roux. Beautiful chocolate brown. Smells as good as it looks. Like toast.
Yum yum 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
Mar 13, 2022 01:23:19 #
Something came up. Put the gumbo on hold. Roux keeps real well, a month or so in the fridge. Years and years in the freezer. It'll be right there tomorrow.
Mar 13, 2022 09:10:16 #
Spiritof27 wrote:
Something came up. Put the gumbo on hold. Roux keeps real well, a month or so in the fridge. Years and years in the freezer. It'll be right there tomorrow.
Smells great from here Chief ! 👍
Mar 13, 2022 09:59:17 #
kandydisbar
Loc: West Orange, NJ
Spiritof27 wrote:
Something came up. Put the gumbo on hold. Roux keeps real well, a month or so in the fridge. Years and years in the freezer. It'll be right there tomorrow.
Wow, great tip, good to know! Thanks.
Mar 13, 2022 16:32:20 #
Spiritof27 wrote:
The gumbo begins. 1/4 cup of butter, 1/4 cup of bacon drippings, and a 1/2 cup of veggie oil. Cup of flour. In the oven at 350° for an hour or so. Could not be easier. And just as good as if you had stood there for an hour and a half stirring and hoping that it don't burn. Seriously. You gumbo cookers have got to try this method of making your roux. Gonna do some beef chuck roast. Shrimps. And hot links. Pictures to follow.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but we just go to the store and buy it!! I make gumbo at least twice a month, and Sam's club, had a two pack, and I still have some left in the second container.
Mar 13, 2022 18:37:26 #
What brand do you buy Harris? I'd ask you if it's any good, but I don't reckon you'd buy it if it was awful. I will reserve that judgement for my taste buds. I never used the store-bought stuff. I thought about it, but then Alton Brown showed me how to do it in the oven and I've never gotten around to tryin the commercial stuff. My bubble is still intact. I like to be able to control what's in my roux. Sometimes I just use butter, sometimes just veggie oil. This time a little bacon grease, butter and oil. To each his own. I will try it if you tell me the brand, and then if I can get it. You should try my method and compare, let me know what you think.
Mar 13, 2022 19:11:13 #
Looking and smelling and tasting pretty good. Got just a little heat from the jalapeño. I'm cooking for 12 year old twins, one likes the heat, one not so much. Frank's works wonders. Or Tabasco. Put that sh*t on everything!
Guess that would be a Gumbo jalapeño?
Oh and that beautiful brown roux? It ain't in there yet.
Guess that would be a Gumbo jalapeño?
Oh and that beautiful brown roux? It ain't in there yet.
The Beef Broth Begins
Couple Cloves of Garlicky Goodness
And a Jumbo Jalapeño
Mar 13, 2022 20:02:27 #
Spiritof27 wrote:
What brand do you buy Harris? I'd ask you if it's... (show quote)
Savoie's DARK roux waaaaaaau back when.........we always made our own, but skipping that step, gives us more time to drink kool aid. LOL
I was shocked when you used the term 'gumbo'. Most of the yankees call it soup.
Mar 13, 2022 20:07:38 #
Take a look at what a gumbo looks like on line. That looks more like a stew, a danggum good looking one at that. Gumbo's in the south is filled with liquid, much like a soup. No carrots, tomatoes, or roast. We use shrimp, crab, chicken, duck, or goose. The chicken is usually a hen, because they are very tough. We put everything in the pot, and when it starts to boil, we cover, and turn down the heat, and cook for a few hrs.
Mar 13, 2022 20:37:25 #
Now you're takin me to school on how to make a gumbo? And tryin to teach me what a gumbo is? I will forgive you just this once. What your lookin at there in those photos is not gumbo. I'm making my beef stock (broth) for the gumbo. And for other things. And I'll add some fish stock which I had in the freezer.
My daddy was from Alabama. He was a pretty good cook and could make a pretty amazing "stew" out the veggies we grew in our garden, and the squirrels and rabbits (even a woodchuck once I seem to recall) that I used to shoot and bring home. He never called it a gumbo. I enlisted in the Navy and got stationed over in Africa where I met a fellow by the name of Adam Cox. He was a self-proclaimed Coonass, and he taught me just about everything I know about "gumbo". The Ethiopians made a deliciously spicy hot "stew" they called zigni. It was gumbo. And I learned a little about making zigni also. A couple of years ago I posted a long post about the making of gumbo. Here it is:
Making Gumbo
This is how I was taught to do it by my daddy who was a pretty doggone good cook except for he could turn a filet mignon into a hockey puck. He would not eat a steak if it had any life left in it at all. He was from Alabama, so my apologies to any of you Loosiana Cajun or Creoles, you may have a different approach but I do welcome comments and criticisms. Hell, I'm stilll learnin and I've been making this for about 55 years. This is not a recipe, it is an approach, and good gumbo like good jazz is open to improvisation and interpretation. Gumbo is an art form, and like art, there is good and there is better and maybe there is best, but it would be very hard to define. There is no bad gumbo, less you burn it. Don't burn it.
First you need to make some broth. I know it's supposed to start "first make a roux". But the broth takes longer. Now if you want you can use store bought, but your gumbo is going to be much better if you take the time to make your own. And I'm not gonna tell you how to do that here, go read somebody else's recipe for chicken broth. Or vegetable broth. Or whatever. My favorite is shrimp broth. Use whole shrimps, head on, shell em out, set the shrimps aside and put the shells and heads in a pot of water, add whatever spices and aromatics you want in there and let it all simmer on the stove for a couple hours.
Now you make a roux. Now you can stand at the stove and drink a six pack or so while you do this, stirring constantly so it don't burn. Or you can go sit in the living room and watch a ballgame (thanks covid, for spoiling that) while you let it cook in the oven. The way I was taught was to stand there and stir, but I've found that just popping it in a 350* oven does the trick and you can keep an eye on it and give it a stir about every quarter hour or so. Now, what makes a gumbo gumbo is the roux. Well, that and the trinity (we'll be gettin to that). Roux (pronounced roo, as in kanga) is just flour and fat, equal portions of each. For the fat you can use vegetable oil, olive oil (I don't like that taste in my gumbo, but you might), lard (oh my), butter (that's really good but if you do be real careful and keep an eye on it, burned butter is not a good flavor) and my favorite - bacon grease. I have found that half bacon grease and half vegetable oil is the perfect combination. Lard and bacon grease half and half is wonderful stuff, but artery clogging. Up to you. Put it in a cast iron skillet, stir in your flour over medium heat, make sure no lumps and put it in that 350 oven. Like I was sayin, roux is what makes gumbo, gumbo. You want a dark, dark roux. Dark chocolate brown. To get that you have to cook it for quite a while, which is why if you're gonna stand there and drink beer while you're stirrin it, you're probably gonna burn it. Don't. Put it in the oven. I assure you it works just as well. Just kinda keep an eye on it. The other thing you need to know about roux is that the darker it gets, the less thickening power it has. Did I tell you that thickening the gumbo is it's main purpose? That and as it cooks, the flour picks up a nice nutty flavor. Anyway, if you're used to making gravy with roux, that old tablespoon of flour to a tablespoon or so of fat ain't gonna work for you. Not for a pot of gumbo. I use a cup of each. All I'm gonna say. Except, if you don't use it all, it will keep in the fridge for the next batch. Takes at least an hour for your roux to get dark chocolate brown.
If you are putting chicken in, you should have stripped the meat off your chicken and returned the skin and the ones to the stock pot. Don't put that in there yet. Chop it up and get it ready to go in, but don't put it in.
Any other meat you're gonna put in there, like ham, pork lamb, fish, oysters, crab, whatever (all good). get that all ready to go in. Ready. Not in.
Now the trinity. The trinity. The trinity is to creole/cajun as meripois is to French. In fact it's the same thing, except the French use carrots, I guess the cajuns didn't have no carrots so they improvised and substituted green pepper. Onion, Celery. Green pepper. (bell pepper) Equal portions of each, chopped up. Into a big ol pot and some bacon grease and sauce til the onions are translucent. It's called sweating. Sweat the trinity.
Now you need to decide. Well, you shoulda decided before you made this horrible mess. You makin cajun or creole gumbo? Both are good. What's the difference? Creole's got tomatoes, cajun don't. That's about it. Cajun's more likely to have stuff like alligators and frogs and other wild critters in it, but not necessarily. I like creole. Now's the time to add the tomatoes to the trinity. You can use fresh if you got em, I generally just add a big ol can of diced. And tomato paste if you like the depth of flavor that it brings to the party. Up to you. Now let that simmer for a 1/2 hour or so.
Now add your broth. How much? How much you makin? Use your judgement. Bring that to a boil, then let it simmer for a while. We're makin flavor. This would be the time to add garlic or hot peppers or another flavors you want to get in there. I like to add Worcestershire, not too much, just a touch. By the way, if you like tabasco for heat, I don't recommend putting that in right now, it'll lost with all them other flavors. Once it's done and you're serving it up, folks can add their own. That's how I like it.
Once you think it's right, taste it, alter it, then add your meat. Just about any gumbo I've ever eaten had sausage in it. Cajun andouille is wonderful. Whatever it is. Unless it's shrimps or fish, don't put that in there yet. Or oysters, somebody mentioned oysters. Stir it all up and get ready to add the roux. Do you know how to temper? Well then, temper the roux. If not - here's what you do. Leave your roux in the same cast iron skillet you baked it in. Give it a good stir and start ladling broth into it from your gumbo pot. Try to get just broth, not the veggies and meat. You can do it. Stir the roux the whole time - it's gonna thicken up like paste, so now what you want is for it to loosen up so you can stir out any lumps that might be in it. You don't want lumpy gumbo. Once your pretty sure you're not gonna get lumps you can add it all into your gumbo.
Stir it in and let it simmer for another 1/2 hour or so. Let it cook. About 5 minutes before you're ready to eat it, add the shrimps, oysters or the fish if you're using that, and let it cook for 5 of 6 minutes til their done.
Serve it over rice. Or, for a real treat for me at least - over grits. Goodness gracious. A little tabasco? Some chopped up scallions? Oh yes.
Let's go back over it.
Choose your meats. (I didn't mention crab. That's another story and we can talk about that if you want)
Make your broth.
Make your roux.
Sweat the trinity.
Cajun or creole?
Add the broth.
Temper the roux.
Add the roux.
Simmer.
Add the fish or shellfish.
Eat. Enjoy.
As I said, this is not a recipe, it is an approach. A method. Just remember certain things are sacrosanct. Don't play with those. The trinity. And the roux. Without those, it's just stew, not gumbo. Don't burn it.
There. That's it. If you have any comments, disagreements, criticisms, I'd love to discuss it with you. I'm 74 years old, I've been making gumbo for about 60 years. I think I've perfected it to my taste, I don't believe I've ever tasted better. I like my product and it is not only delicious, it's f*cking authentic. I think I can back that up.
My daddy was from Alabama. He was a pretty good cook and could make a pretty amazing "stew" out the veggies we grew in our garden, and the squirrels and rabbits (even a woodchuck once I seem to recall) that I used to shoot and bring home. He never called it a gumbo. I enlisted in the Navy and got stationed over in Africa where I met a fellow by the name of Adam Cox. He was a self-proclaimed Coonass, and he taught me just about everything I know about "gumbo". The Ethiopians made a deliciously spicy hot "stew" they called zigni. It was gumbo. And I learned a little about making zigni also. A couple of years ago I posted a long post about the making of gumbo. Here it is:
Making Gumbo
This is how I was taught to do it by my daddy who was a pretty doggone good cook except for he could turn a filet mignon into a hockey puck. He would not eat a steak if it had any life left in it at all. He was from Alabama, so my apologies to any of you Loosiana Cajun or Creoles, you may have a different approach but I do welcome comments and criticisms. Hell, I'm stilll learnin and I've been making this for about 55 years. This is not a recipe, it is an approach, and good gumbo like good jazz is open to improvisation and interpretation. Gumbo is an art form, and like art, there is good and there is better and maybe there is best, but it would be very hard to define. There is no bad gumbo, less you burn it. Don't burn it.
First you need to make some broth. I know it's supposed to start "first make a roux". But the broth takes longer. Now if you want you can use store bought, but your gumbo is going to be much better if you take the time to make your own. And I'm not gonna tell you how to do that here, go read somebody else's recipe for chicken broth. Or vegetable broth. Or whatever. My favorite is shrimp broth. Use whole shrimps, head on, shell em out, set the shrimps aside and put the shells and heads in a pot of water, add whatever spices and aromatics you want in there and let it all simmer on the stove for a couple hours.
Now you make a roux. Now you can stand at the stove and drink a six pack or so while you do this, stirring constantly so it don't burn. Or you can go sit in the living room and watch a ballgame (thanks covid, for spoiling that) while you let it cook in the oven. The way I was taught was to stand there and stir, but I've found that just popping it in a 350* oven does the trick and you can keep an eye on it and give it a stir about every quarter hour or so. Now, what makes a gumbo gumbo is the roux. Well, that and the trinity (we'll be gettin to that). Roux (pronounced roo, as in kanga) is just flour and fat, equal portions of each. For the fat you can use vegetable oil, olive oil (I don't like that taste in my gumbo, but you might), lard (oh my), butter (that's really good but if you do be real careful and keep an eye on it, burned butter is not a good flavor) and my favorite - bacon grease. I have found that half bacon grease and half vegetable oil is the perfect combination. Lard and bacon grease half and half is wonderful stuff, but artery clogging. Up to you. Put it in a cast iron skillet, stir in your flour over medium heat, make sure no lumps and put it in that 350 oven. Like I was sayin, roux is what makes gumbo, gumbo. You want a dark, dark roux. Dark chocolate brown. To get that you have to cook it for quite a while, which is why if you're gonna stand there and drink beer while you're stirrin it, you're probably gonna burn it. Don't. Put it in the oven. I assure you it works just as well. Just kinda keep an eye on it. The other thing you need to know about roux is that the darker it gets, the less thickening power it has. Did I tell you that thickening the gumbo is it's main purpose? That and as it cooks, the flour picks up a nice nutty flavor. Anyway, if you're used to making gravy with roux, that old tablespoon of flour to a tablespoon or so of fat ain't gonna work for you. Not for a pot of gumbo. I use a cup of each. All I'm gonna say. Except, if you don't use it all, it will keep in the fridge for the next batch. Takes at least an hour for your roux to get dark chocolate brown.
If you are putting chicken in, you should have stripped the meat off your chicken and returned the skin and the ones to the stock pot. Don't put that in there yet. Chop it up and get it ready to go in, but don't put it in.
Any other meat you're gonna put in there, like ham, pork lamb, fish, oysters, crab, whatever (all good). get that all ready to go in. Ready. Not in.
Now the trinity. The trinity. The trinity is to creole/cajun as meripois is to French. In fact it's the same thing, except the French use carrots, I guess the cajuns didn't have no carrots so they improvised and substituted green pepper. Onion, Celery. Green pepper. (bell pepper) Equal portions of each, chopped up. Into a big ol pot and some bacon grease and sauce til the onions are translucent. It's called sweating. Sweat the trinity.
Now you need to decide. Well, you shoulda decided before you made this horrible mess. You makin cajun or creole gumbo? Both are good. What's the difference? Creole's got tomatoes, cajun don't. That's about it. Cajun's more likely to have stuff like alligators and frogs and other wild critters in it, but not necessarily. I like creole. Now's the time to add the tomatoes to the trinity. You can use fresh if you got em, I generally just add a big ol can of diced. And tomato paste if you like the depth of flavor that it brings to the party. Up to you. Now let that simmer for a 1/2 hour or so.
Now add your broth. How much? How much you makin? Use your judgement. Bring that to a boil, then let it simmer for a while. We're makin flavor. This would be the time to add garlic or hot peppers or another flavors you want to get in there. I like to add Worcestershire, not too much, just a touch. By the way, if you like tabasco for heat, I don't recommend putting that in right now, it'll lost with all them other flavors. Once it's done and you're serving it up, folks can add their own. That's how I like it.
Once you think it's right, taste it, alter it, then add your meat. Just about any gumbo I've ever eaten had sausage in it. Cajun andouille is wonderful. Whatever it is. Unless it's shrimps or fish, don't put that in there yet. Or oysters, somebody mentioned oysters. Stir it all up and get ready to add the roux. Do you know how to temper? Well then, temper the roux. If not - here's what you do. Leave your roux in the same cast iron skillet you baked it in. Give it a good stir and start ladling broth into it from your gumbo pot. Try to get just broth, not the veggies and meat. You can do it. Stir the roux the whole time - it's gonna thicken up like paste, so now what you want is for it to loosen up so you can stir out any lumps that might be in it. You don't want lumpy gumbo. Once your pretty sure you're not gonna get lumps you can add it all into your gumbo.
Stir it in and let it simmer for another 1/2 hour or so. Let it cook. About 5 minutes before you're ready to eat it, add the shrimps, oysters or the fish if you're using that, and let it cook for 5 of 6 minutes til their done.
Serve it over rice. Or, for a real treat for me at least - over grits. Goodness gracious. A little tabasco? Some chopped up scallions? Oh yes.
Let's go back over it.
Choose your meats. (I didn't mention crab. That's another story and we can talk about that if you want)
Make your broth.
Make your roux.
Sweat the trinity.
Cajun or creole?
Add the broth.
Temper the roux.
Add the roux.
Simmer.
Add the fish or shellfish.
Eat. Enjoy.
As I said, this is not a recipe, it is an approach. A method. Just remember certain things are sacrosanct. Don't play with those. The trinity. And the roux. Without those, it's just stew, not gumbo. Don't burn it.
There. That's it. If you have any comments, disagreements, criticisms, I'd love to discuss it with you. I'm 74 years old, I've been making gumbo for about 60 years. I think I've perfected it to my taste, I don't believe I've ever tasted better. I like my product and it is not only delicious, it's f*cking authentic. I think I can back that up.
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