From the Lexicon, Roux, Slurry & Liaison
The thickener's toolkit. ROUX: equal weights flour and fat cooked together: white (2 min) for béchamel, blond for velouté, brown to brick-dark for gumbo, each stage trading thickening power for flavor. SLURRY: cornstarch or arrowroot in cold water, whisked into simmering liquid at the end: instant gloss, Asian-sauce standard, breaks down if boiled long. LIAISON: egg yolk and cream tempered in off the heat: the silk finish of blanquette and avgolemono; boil it and you've made sweet scrambled regret. BEURRE MANIÉ: raw butter-flour paste whisked in at the finish, the braise-rescuer. Choose by the sauce's temperature future, not habit.
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