Summary: Béchamel is a wonderful thing! It’s one of the French mother sauces, which means by making a few tweaks to the recipe it can become a mornay, nantua, mustard, cheddar cheese or parsley sauce. It’s a fabulous sauce to get aquainted with because it’s easy, delicious and super versatile. In fact, there are more variations than I’ve listed! These sauces really add interest to to meat and veg meals or can even be used as a pasta sauce. If you fancy cooking a moussaka or cauliflower cheese or fish pie or lasagne or mac ‘n’ cheese or croquettes or tuna mornay – you’ll probably need a béchamel or a variation of it. The recipe here is for a medium consistency sauce because I find it’s what I use the most often. If you desire a thicker or thinner sauce see the notes at the bottom.
Ingredients
- 2 tblsp butter
- 2 tblsp flour
- 1 cup cold milk
- Salt, to taste
- Pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Melt the butter and continue heating until it stops foaming.
- Add the flour and whisk vigorously to form a roux and cook for a few minutes. You want to cook out that raw flour flavour but you don’t want it to colour. This is called a roux.
- Add the cold milk while whisking vigorously, to avoid lumps. Continue whisking as the sauce thickens.
- Bring the the sauce to a boil and add salt & pepper. Continue to cook for two to three minutes before removing from the heat.
- This will make around 1 cup but the recipe can be doubled. If you are cooking the sauce for later use, cover the top with wax paper (touching the sauce) to prevent a skin forming.
Quick notes
Thin White Sauce: 1 tblsp butter, 1 tblsp flour, 1 cup milk
Thick White Sauce: 3 tblsp butter, 3 tblsp flour, 1 cup milk
Heavy White Sauce: 4 tblsp butter, 4 tblsp flour, 1 cup milk
Variations
Mornay Sauce – Add 1/2 cup grated cheese to 1 cup of hot sauce; stir over low heat until cheese is melted. Season with a little mustard or Worcestershire sauce to taste.
Nantua Sauce – 1/4 cup cooked, very finely chopped crayfish, shrimp, crab or lobster and 1/4 tsp hot paprika. Make the béchamel, remove from heat and whisk in shellfish and paprika.
Mustard Sauce – Whisk in 2-3 tsp. prepared mustard after the sauce is thickened.
Cheddar Cheese – Stir in 1/2 to 1 cup grated cheddar cheese during the last 2 minutes of cooking, along with a pinch of cayenne pepper.
Parsley Sauce – Add 3 tblsp of finely chopped fresh parsley after the sauce has thickened.
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