re: Butter or oil for gumbo

I use half butter and half oil. It works for me, I've never had a problem with it burning

Plenty of answers all over the place here, but this is my rule for rouxs:


Oil for dark roux, butter for light.


The reason for this is that once you go dark you are getting that smoky taste, so the fat of choice won't really matter to much in terms of flavor. The powerful flavor of the darkened flour overpowers whatever delicate flavor comes from the oil. With a lighter roux the browning of the flour is more delicate, so the fat you use will show up more in the final product.

I personally prefer to use a cheap canola oil for dark roux, because the extra money in a delicately flavorful oil such as butter or duck fat seems to be wasted. Then again I have never tried it in my gumbo, so I could just have wasted all this time typing a fallacy

Whatever they use in the jar of Kerry’s I use.

Ain’t nobody got time fo’ dat!