Part of the Prep and Production Cook track. Lesson 5 of 10.
Where in the shift: midday, sized to the hold window.
Prerequisites: Modules 10, 11, 15, 19, 45.
The sequence
Cook the roux past the raw flour smell.
Bring to a full boil briefly.
Season at the finished volume.
Cover with film pressed to the surface.
And size the batch to the hold window, not to the shift.
The decisions
Batch size. This is the lesson. A gravy sized to the shift will be corrected two or three times and end as three textures in one pan, per Module 19.
Two batches, sized to a three-hour hold, costs twenty minutes and saves the product.
Cover or stir. Cover. Stirring prevents skinning and applies shear, and shear breaks gelatinized starch granules — which is the trade most kitchens get backward, per Module 10.
And whether a batch is past correction. Roughly one correction for a roux-thickened dairy sauce. The test: if you cannot say what the product originally was, it is past correction, per Module 45.
What you are reading
Nappe. Coats a spoon and holds a drawn line.
The roux's smell — nutty rather than raw.
And the sauce at hour two: slightly thinner, the sheet a little quicker off the spoon. One correction will hold here. Another hour and a correction only postpones the next one.
What goes wrong here
Sized to the shift. Three textures in one pan.
Stirred rather than covered.
Boil skipped, which leaves the gelatinization incomplete and produces weeping after chilling.
Verification
The hold curve, measured once — body at hour one and hour three of a development batch. That curve sets the batch size.
The boundary
Holding, cooling, and reheating are governed by the local health authority.