Meryl wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I made my first own broccoli with cream sauce using flour, butter and
> milk to make a white sauce but it came out ... too starchy tasting.
>
> I tried to understand what happened (thanks to the many good posts here
> about this) but I have a question. Many posts on RFC say to cook the
> flour and butter for a short time "to remove the starch taste" but some
> others say cook the white sauce for a long time ... "to remove the
> starch taste".
>
> So I was cureous, what is it that gets rid of the starch taste, cooking
> the flour or the white sauce? I was cureous too, how does the starch
> manage to provide thickness but no starch flavor once its cooked
> properly?

The simplest solution is to do what Escoffier suggested. Use a pure
starch like corn starch, potato starch, etc. in the roux. It's
essentially instant and it has none of the drawbacks of flour. No long
cook needed, either before or after adding it to the sauce base, no
skimming necessary, thickness becomes obvious quickly rather than
after cooking and waiting.

You're not tasting starch in that undercooked roux, or rather you're
tasting everything else plus ungelatinized starch. It's pasty and
that's because the starch is part of a very complex little package,
each member of which needs to be cooked in its own fashion. Cut to the
chase. Use a pure starch. If you want the opacity that flour provides,
use a slurry with some cream in it instead of the roux. Finish by
mounting with butter and - voila - a good, classic, Escoffier-approved
sauce.

Problem solved.

Pastorio