and pork roast recipes. Yum.

We used a mix of butter and oil, because it's a little more heat tolerant. The mix of oil with the butter keeps things from burning, somewhat. We actually didn't go as dark as some serious Cajun cooks will go, but we were trying to time it with several other things all going on at the same time, so once it was dark enough, it was time for the veggies to go in!

Just some interesting hair-splitting food trivia for the weekend: Creole and classic rouxs (rouxes?) use butter, whole or clarified, but the Cajuns were far too poor for that sort of extravagance - they use either vegetable oil, shortening, or really traditionally lard. A butter-based roux does detectably change the character of a pot of gumbo; I'm OK with it but the Louisiana-born wife considers it an utter abomination.

Certainly not traditional, but it has a high smoke point and it's what I keep on hand.

For a super dark batch, the kind where you have to dump it onto an iced sheet pan to keep it from burning, we'll use grapeseed, but otherwise it's whatever canola/soy/corn we have on hand.

Light rouxs always get butter, though. Fun fact, clarified is better even for a light blonde batch since it doesn't contain water - you don't need to carefully wait for the foam to subside but the solids to not brown before you dump in the starch.

I helped my mom make gumbo my whole childhood and never used butter in my own gumbo because I don't remember her using it. Maybe we were too poor. But even when she cooked in restaurants I don't remember her using butter. I will have to try that. Everything's better with butter! Avocado oil has a very high smoke point. I'll try using that next time. My gumbo is pretty damn good, (I make it with a very dark roux) but maybe I can make it even better. Thanks for posting this!

It comes out too rich, sweet and…well, buttery. Pleaded with the wife to make it with butter once, I was ambivalent at best and she was outright disgusted. Now, lard on the other hand…

making a dark roux, and because you have to stir constantly it takes awhile to darken, you going to need a six-pack of beer cause your going to get thirsty. "I gar-on-tee!

You do need to let it darken on the bottom between stirrings, but you've got to keep a close watch to make sure it's just darkening and not burning.

Also, a six-pack is a great idea so long as you're done with your knife work!

Get a good heavy cast iron pan or Dutch oven, mix up the fat and oil over the fire, then pop into a 325-degree oven. Stir it every 20 minutes or so, keeping an eye on the color. It can take a couple of three hours if you're doing a big batch, but it's pretty much zero actual work. At home we do 2# flour and 2# oil, then freeze it in ice cube trays. Lasts a couple of months.

I'll have to try that! I'm going to use avocado oil to avoid the transfat.