Beurre Manie

OK, this is a ridiculous kitchen product. What kind of benefit is there to mixing butter and flour first? It's not like a roux where the application of heat is causing changes to the flour particles. I can put butter and flour in the pot just as well one at a time. AND, in point of fact, making a blob of beurre manie carries the risk that the butter is too warm, or my hands are too warm, and the thing doesn't come together anyway.

Jeff, I sometimes make it when I need to thicken a sauce , just whisking in bits to the hot sauce until he right consistency is achieved. I think the butter disperses the flour, stopping it clumping as it goes ino th hot liquid.
When you say this product, is it something you can buy premade?

[Jenise]

What Barb said. Prevents clumping.

Not on-topic but it brought to mind what I saw on The Kitchen Saturday, I enjoy that show very much, it is a fun show and the characters are interesting. Sunny Anderson, who loves to peruse the grocery store aisles in search of new products for shortcuts, had two packets of smashed garlic, and the other ginger. Each packet appeared to have about 12 small compartments, each with about 1 tsp of the specific product. You just punch out from the back and the product plops into your mixing bowl. All I could think of was, ICK! Not sure why, but I know I love chopping fresh garlic, and grating fresh garlic. I like the odor and the fact that it is a fresh product going into my food. I'm not against shortcuts but some things just taste better if they are fresh.

Jeff, I sometimes make it when I need to thicken a sauce , just whisking in bits to the hot sauce until he right consistency is achieved. I think the butter disperses the flour, stopping it clumping as it goes ino th hot liquid.

That makes some sense, though I still think I can do it manually.

When you say this product, is it something you can buy premade?

No, just didn't have a good word for it. (The Wikipedia calls it a 'dough', which is technically correct but feels weird.)

Not on-topic but it brought to mind what I saw on The Kitchen Saturday, I enjoy that show very much, it is a fun show and the characters are interesting. Sunny Anderson, who loves to peruse the grocery store aisles in search of new products for shortcuts, had two packets of smashed garlic, and the other ginger. Each packet appeared to have about 12 small compartments, each with about 1 tsp of the specific product. You just punch out from the back and the product plops into your mixing bowl. All I could think of was, ICK! Not sure why, but I know I love chopping fresh garlic, and grating fresh garlic. I like the odor and the fact that it is a fresh product going into my food. I'm not against shortcuts but some things just taste better if they are fresh.

Agreed. Packaged garlic has no flavor and, fwiw, comes mostly from China... seems silly to import garlic from halfway around the world (and I have not forgotten that their food standards do not exactly match ours).

I'm even a little dubious of tomato paste in a tube.

[Jenise]

Packaged garlic has no flavor

Right; and has probably been treated with preservatives to boot. YUCK.

IMO beurre manie is a roux--an uncooked one. By mixing in the butter ahead of time, you are coating each particle of flour with water-repelling butterfat. This is going to change the way the flour particles interact with the other ingredients in the dish. Among other things, it will be less likely to clump, as already pointed out.

-Paul W.