On Sat, 22 Oct 2016 09:42:26 -0400, Dave Smith
> wrote:

>On 2016-10-22 6:58 AM, Alan Holbrook wrote:
>> Every once in a while, when I get the feeling that my arteries are still
>> too flexible and my heart isn't working hard enough pumping blood, I'll
>> make a large skillet of sawmill gravy and pour it over biscuits for
>> breakfast. The recipe I follow says, as do all the other recipes I've seen
>> that involve making a white sauce, that once you have the roux the color
>> you want, you should take the pan off the heat to add the milk. I've often
>> wondered why that is and what would happen if you added the milk directly
>> to the pan containing the roux while it's still on the burner. Rather than
>> risk seven years' bad luck or something similar trying it, I thought I'd
>> ask. Can any of the RFC intelligentsia enlighten me?
>
>If you add the milk to the roux in a hot pan it tends to coagulate very
>quickly and you end up with a lumpy sauce. It is not the end of the
>world. You and whisk it like mad for a long time or maybe use a stick
>blender to removed the lumps. It is easier to simply take it off the
>heat and avoid the lumps.
>
Clearly, judging by other responses, this is a male thing - women are
more dextrous and can do two things at once successfully