# Broulee? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 22, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broulee/457411 "2008-07-22T19:58:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broulee/457411/1 "2008-07-22T19:58:12Z")
I just made beef stew. To thicken it, I mixed flour with water to make a smooth paste. To do otherwise would lead to little clumps of flour. What do you call this thickening stuff? A Broulee? Something else? A Roux? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broulee/457411/2 "2008-07-22T20:05:28Z")
A roux is usually made with flour and fat. [Alton Brown](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=10028950) calls a mixture of flour and water a slurry, though I don’t know if that is a standard term. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broulee/457411/3 "2008-07-22T20:09:26Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] A roux is usually made with flour and fat. [Alton Brown](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=10028950) calls a mixture of flour and water a slurry, though I don’t know if that is a standard term. [/QUOTE] A slurry is a mixture of corn starch (well, any starch) and a liquid. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broulee/457411/4 "2008-07-22T20:09:42Z")
Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broulee/457411/5 "2008-07-22T20:11:26Z")
I call a mixture of flour and water [paste.](http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/papermache/a/blpmpastes.htm) If you start with paste, you’ll end with paste. Make a roux instead. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broulee/457411/6 "2008-07-22T20:13:11Z")
As **Fear** says, it’s not a traditional roux, although it’s sometimes called a cowboy roux. It’s also not a _buerre manie’_, which is butter and flour mixed together. Either of these is preferable to flour and water. In the future, you might use a corn starch/water mixture, as it is taste-neutral. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broulee/457411/7 "2008-07-22T20:33:16Z")
Next time you make stew, post in Cafe Society and we’ll talk. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broulee/457411/8 "2008-07-22T20:56:49Z")
Yeah, I was gonna say slurry. Did you shake it up in a baby food jar, like Martha Stewart says you should? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broulee/457411/9 "2008-07-22T21:12:35Z")
I call it a slurry as well. Makes no difference if it’s flour, cornstarch or arrowroot. A roux, OTOH, is flour cooked in butter. The darker you cook it, the stronger its flavor gets, but its thickening power reduces. At its lightest, a roux will have about the same thickening power as the flour and water slurry, and a brick roux has very little thickening ability, but a lot of flavor. It’s also about five seconds away from burnt - brick roux is challenging to produce. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broulee/457411/10 "2008-07-23T06:03:57Z")
And, for completeness, [Crème brûlée](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cr%C3%A8me_br%C3%BBl%C3%A9e) is completely unrelated; it’s a desert custard with a burnt sugar crust; brûlée means burnt. The only Broulee I can find is a small country town in my state, which I had never heard of before.