Béchamel sauce is a basic white sauce.
It is one of the five French Mother sauces (a.k.a. foundational sauces) of French cuisine—the other four are hollandaise, espagnole, tomato, and velouté.
Béchamel sauce can be used “as is” for many dishes, such as gratins, Croque Madame, or even Café Compture Able’s pike quenelle. See my post “Best Bouchons in Lyon” or “Best Quenelles in Lyon.”
Simple Bechamel sauce has four ingredients: 1) butter, 2) flour, 3) milk, and seasonings. It is made by creating a roux with butter and flour, adding milk to form a sauce, and then seasoning with ground nutmeg, salt, and white pepper to taste.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
Infuse the milk
- Pierce the onion with cloves.
- Place onion, bay leaf, and pepper corns in the saucepan with the milk.
- Bring milk to a high simmer just before the milk boils.
- Remove from heat and let infuse for at least 20 minutes.
- Strain and cover with cling film to contact to prevent skin from forming.
- Place in the refrigerator to cool.
For the sauce
- Place a sauce pan over medium-low heat to warm.
- Add the butter and allow it to foam.
- Wait for the butter to stop foaming.
- Once the butter stops foaming, add the flour.
- Whisk the butter and flour mixture to a roux for two to three minutes.
- Add ALL the cold-infused milk into the roux and whisk vigorously.
- Continue to cook the white sauce for ten more minutes over low heat to ensure the flour is cooked, whisking constantly to ensure the sauce does not stick to the bottom or sides of the pot and brown or burn.
- Remove from heat.
- Add a pinch of nutmeg.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Work the sauce through a fine mess strainer.
- Add the egg yolks to make the sauce rich and luxurious (This is how Wolfgang Puck makes béchamel sauce)
- Temper the first egg with a tablespoon of the hot sauce.
- Add the tempered mixture into the sauce and whisk to incorporate.
- Temper the second egg add to the sauce and whisk to incorporate.
Notes
- There are three types of roux: blond or white roux, brown, and dark. In this recipe, you are making a blond or white roux.
- Making béchamel sauce takes villigance. Low heat and constant whisking are essential to prevent the roux from browning or burning and the sauce from sticking to the pan and burning.
- Milk is added all at once to prevent lumps, not a cup at a time.
- In this case, cold-infused milk is added since the roux is hot. If the roux is cold, you can add warm-infused milk.
- If the sauce becomes too thick, add more milk, a little at a time, until it reaches the desired consistency.
- Egg yolks are unnecessary but make the béchamel sauce rich and luxurious. This is how Wolfgang Puck makes béchamel sauce.
- Béchamel sauce can be made and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, covered with plastic wrap to contact.
- If the Bechamel is too thick when reheating, add a little milk.
