Roux is a conceptual term used by cooks to describe a base for a cream gravy, sauce, or binder. Glutens are first heated in oil, turning them into thickening starches, leaving just proteins in water on which to bind. If you have flour and oil (or butter), and you heat it for five minutes, then add stock or lactose. Stir like crazy. In three minutes, you should have an awesome cream sauce.
Don't forget to stir like crazy.
The polar opposite of this concept is reduction. That's where you cross over from cream sauce to beurre blanc. This involves a combination of aromatics and wine, reducing au sec (to where there is no moisture left), then adding cream and reducing still further (2/3rds reduction), until you have an amazing sauce that can only be finished with copious amounts of butter.
Both sauces are delicious and simple, though one definitely requires more time than the other.
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