Check Out This ‘Automatic Roux Cooker’ Patent From 1986 [Photos]
Imagine if the next time you wanted to make a roux, all you needed to do was to grab your special cooker, add flower and oil, turn it on, and the "pot" did the cooking and stirring for you. What you would be using for this magic would be an "Automatic Roux Cooker", and it seems it almost became a reality.
According to the U.S. Patent Office, John A. Chauvin from Gretna filed for a patent in March of 1986 for his invention of what he listed as an "Automatic Roux Cooker".
Chauvin's "Automatic Roux Cooker" invention included a heat source, thermostat, and a motor-driven agitator to stir the roux. Clearly, there's more to it as you'll see in U.S. Patent photos below.
It also looks like Chauvin's "Automatic Roux Cooker" would have included a settings dial which would allow you to choose light, medium or dark brown roux.
I mean, we have automatic rice cookers, so why not roux cookers?
As we all know, part of the joy of making a great roux is...well the process of making it. The time and love spent in the kitchen stirring to make the roux is the most important ingredient, right? As they say, it's the journey not the destination.
All that being said, I'd still love to see Mr. Chauvin's invention do it's thing.
As far as I know the "Automatic Roux Cooker" never made it into production. Sure, there are automatic sauce stirrers you can get that do a decent job, but this invention was more than that.
You can read more in great detail about the "Automatic Roux Cooker" over on the U.S. Patents page HERE.