How To Make Bechamel Sauce
This classic white sauce is a staple in French cuisine. Béchamel is a very simple sauce made from a roux of butter and flour with milk. You can build a wonderful meal on the foundation of a good béchamel. Be careful to not allow the roux to brown to maintain the white color. To achieve a perfectly smooth sauce, warm the milk before adding it to the roux. Béchamel is often used in lasagna recipes that call for white sauce and in the Greek dish moussaka. In this video, Chef Mike provides an online cooking lesson for making a perfect béchamel sauce. For more great cooking demonstration videos, subscribe to the LearnToCookOnline YouTube channel.
Béchamel Sauce Recipe
Ingredients:
2 qts. milk
3 oz. onions, medium dice
½ each bay leaf, split
1 each whole clove, cracked
1 each fresh Thyme sprig
3 oz. butter
3 oz. flour
2 each garlic cloves, minced
Salt, white pepper and nutmeg to taste
1. Sweat onions and garlic in fat until onions are transparent. Add bay leaf, clove and thyme and sweat for 3 minutes.
2. Add flour and make a roux. Only add enough flour until all of the fat is absorbed. Should be a blond roux.
3. Temper the milk and add to roux. Simmer for 20 minutes or until desired thickness is reached. Be sure to skim the surface of the sauce periodically to remove impurities. (If the sauce will be used at a later time, you may want to keep the consistency on the thin side.)
4. Strain sauce and adjust seasoning with salt, white pepper and nutmeg. Sauce should have the consistency of heavy cream.
If you have questions or comments about this video or recipe please leave them below.
Can I reheat a cream sauce? Can I freeze a cream sauce? If it breaks what can I do to fix it? If I freeze it how do I thaw it without it breaking? Thank you for your expertise.
Hi MThibeault
You can reheat Bechamel sc,so it very slowly, be sure to cover the sauce to be refridgerated directly on the surface with paper to prevent a skin from forming.
Yes you can freeze it, pour it into zip lock bags of choice and freeze. Defrost briefly in micro to soften, re-heat slowly in pan. IF the sauce breaks, add additional prepared roux and adjust consistency with addtional milk.Be sure all liquids when reheated are brought to food safe temp which is 165oF for 15 seconds. prior to service.Enjoy and Happy Cooking, Chef Mark
Thxs chef
is it used in lasagna?
can i use the bechamel sauce directly for my dishes ? i mean i don’t further it into cream sauce or cheddar cheese sauce . Just serve my dishes with bechamel sauce . is it okay ?