You melt the butter, stir in the flour, pour in the milk, and stir away with a wooden spoon or a big balloon whisk. The middle of the pan looks fine. Meanwhile, the bit of roux stuck in the corner where the base meets the side never gets mixed in, and that’s where the lumps come from. A different whisk sorts most of it out.
Why a flat whisk fixes it
A balloon whisk is round, so only a small part of it ever touches the bottom of the pan. A flat whisk, like the OXO Good Grips Flat Whisk, has its wires laid out in one plane, a bit like a squashed balloon. Tilt it and the whole width presses against the base of the pan at once, and the curved tip gets right into the edges. It drags everything along with it instead of skating over the top.
The OXO one has four polished stainless steel wires, a 10-inch length so your hand stays clear of the heat, and a soft, non-slip handle. It’s also listed as dishwasher safe.
The method that goes with it
- Melt the butter and stir in the flour, then let it cook for a minute or two so it loses that raw taste.
- Take the pan off the heat and add a small splash of milk first. Whisk it into a thick paste.
- Keep adding the milk a little at a time, whisking in a figure-of-eight across the base and running the whisk round the edges each time.
- Back on the heat, keep whisking until it thickens. If a lump does appear, it’s usually easy to beat out with the flat wires before it sets.
Cold milk into a hot roux, added gradually, is the usual combination. Most lumps come from adding too much liquid at once.
Gravy, too
It’s just as good for gravy. Whisk flour or gravy granules into the roasting tin juices and the flat wires scrape up the sticky browned bits from the bottom of the tin while you go, which is where most of the flavour is. The listing pitches it for deglazing and making roux, and those are the two jobs it does best.
It won’t whip cream or egg whites, as it doesn’t move enough air, so hang on to your balloon whisk. The wires are metal, too, so be gentle in non-stick pans.
The OXO Good Grips Flat Whisk is on Amazon if you want to give one a go.
