viscosity After reduction, the concentration of starch in these sauces is around 5%, the gelatin concentration probably about half that The First Printed Recipe for Roux It was long thought that the first recipes for roux appeared in late 17th-century French cookbooks, but here is one of two German recipes from 150 years before La Varenne They suggest that this version of the starch thickener was developed in late medieval times How to Cook a Wild Boar’s Head, Also How to Prepare a Sauce for It A wild boar’s head should be boiled well in water and, when it is done, laid on a grate and basted with wine, then it will be thought to have been cooked in wine Afterwards make a black or yellow sauce with it First, when you would make a black sauce, you should heat up a little fat and brown a small spoonful of wheat flour in the fat and after that put good wine into it and good cherry syrup, so that it becomes black, and sugar, ginger, pepper, cloves and cinnamon, grapes, raisins and finely chopped almonds And taste it, however it seems good to you, make it so — Das Kochbuch der Sabina Welserin, 1533, transl Valoise Armstrong Milk-Based Sauces: Béchamel and Boiled Sauces based on milk rather than stock are of course much easier to make, and more forgiving; because they’re already milky, the cook doesn’t have to worry about long simmering to clarify them The classic starchthickened milk sauce is béchamel, whose only other ingredients are seasonings and the butter in which the starch is precooked for a couple of minutes Once the milk has been added to the roux, the sauce is simmered for 30–60 minutes with occasional skimming of the skin ... The classic starchthickened milk sauce is béchamel, whose only other ingredients are seasonings and the butter in which the starch is precooked for a couple of minutes Once the milk has been added to the roux, the sauce is simmered for 30–60... Sauces based on milk rather than stock are of course much easier to make, and more forgiving; because they’re already milky, the cook doesn’t have to worry about long simmering to clarify them The classic starchthickened milk sauce is béchamel, whose only...black sauce, you should heat up a little fat and brown a small spoonful of wheat flour in the fat and after that put good wine into it and good cherry syrup, so that it becomes black, and sugar, ginger, pepper, cloves and cinnamon, grapes, raisins and