Basics: Béchamel sauce

Name: Basics: Béchamel sauce
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 10g unsalted butter; 10g plain flour; 105ml milk (whole is best); 0.1 Whole nutmeg; Salt to taste; 1 tsp Dijon Mustard (optional); Ground white pepper (optional)

9 steps

Cook:15min

One of the "mother sauces" of french cooking. A good Béchamel (also known as a white sauce) is a skill worth learning. As a rule of thumb, I tend to use equal parts butter + flour and 10-11x the amount of milk (in mls). How much sauce you make depends on what you're making, here are some common amounts I use: - Normal-sized lasagne: 40g/40g/400ml - Fish Pie (4-5 people): 50g/50g/600ml - Salmon en croûte: 20g/20g/200ml - Pie (4 people): 30g/30g/300ml For people that prefer Imperial, you can use the convert button below to see the proportions. (Like most things with Imperial, it's slightly less neat I'm afraid).

Updated at: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 10:36:35 GMT

Nutrition balance score

Unbalanced

Glycemic Index

Moderate

Glycemic Load

Low

Nutrition per serving

Calories173.5 kcal (9%)

Total Fat11.7 g (17%)

Carbs12.7 g (5%)

Sugars5.2 g (6%)

Protein4.6 g (9%)

Sodium817.2 mg (41%)

Fiber0.3 g (1%)

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Ingredients

1 servings

10gunsalted butter

10gplain flour

105mlmilk

whole is best

0.1Whole nutmeg

salt

to taste

1 tspdijon mustard

optional

Ground white pepper

optional

Instructions

Step 1

Make a roux by melting your butter in a pan and stirring through your flour until you have a grainy paste. A roux is used to thicken a load of different sauces.

CooktopHeat

unsalted butter10g

plain flour10g

Step 2

We want a "blonde" roux for a bechamel, so cook for a little bit to get rid of the raw flour taste but don't let it darken (3-5 mins).

CooktopHeat

Step 3

Very slowly at first start adding your milk whilst stirring continuously. You want to make sure your pan is hot enough that it can heat the cold milk up quite quickly but not so hot that it begins to bubble or boil. Your roux might turn into a big ball or lump at first, this is fine, just keep stirring it around in the milk and as it absorbs it it will slowly melt into a thick paste. Remember: cold milk + hot roux = thick sauce

milk105ml

Step 4

Keep adding milk and stirring till you have no lumps, repeat.

Step 5

Once you have the desired consistency, get some whole nutmeg and grate it using a microplane into your sauce. You can use pre-ground nutmeg but it really isn't as nice for some reason.