Béchamel

A white sauce whose roux is cooked for flavour but not for colour, and which is then simmered far longer than most recipes admit.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

• 50 g butter
• 50 g plain flour
• 600 ml whole milk
• 1 small onion, peeled
• 2 cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• a good grating of nutmeg
• salt and white pepper

Method

1. THE ROUX IS COOKED UNTIL IT SMELLS OF BISCUIT, NOT UNTIL IT COLOURS. Two full minutes of gentle bubbling, and the smell changes from raw flour to something toasted. That is the point at which the floury taste has gone. Let it take any colour at all and this stops being a white sauce; stop before it, and the sauce tastes of paste however long you simmer it afterwards.
2. AND THEN IT IS SIMMERED FOR TWENTY MINUTES, which most recipes do not say. The sauce thickens in about three, and that is where people stop. The remaining seventeen are what cook the starch out properly; a three-minute bechamel is thick and tastes thin.
3. THE MILK GOES IN A THIRD AT A TIME AND IS BEATEN SMOOTH BEFORE THE NEXT. Lumps form when there is more liquid than the roux can absorb, and once formed they do not whisk out. There is no need for the milk to be hot -- cold milk into a hot roux is easier to control, not harder.
4. THE ONION IS A SEASONING, NOT AN INGREDIENT. Studded with cloves and left in while it simmers, then lifted out. You will not taste onion; you will notice it is missing if you leave it out.
5. Butter melted in a heavy pan over a medium-low heat, not allowed to brown.
6. Flour whisked in and cooked 2 MINUTES, bubbling gently, until it smells of biscuit and is still pale.
7. A third of the milk poured in and whisked hard. It will seize into a thick paste -- this is correct.
8. The second third in, whisked smooth. Then the last.
9. The onion studded with the cloves and the bay leaf added.
10. Brought to a bare simmer and cooked 20 MINUTES, whisked every few minutes and into the corners of the pan, where it catches.
11. Onion and bay lifted out.
12. Nutmeg, salt and white pepper. Tasted -- it needs more salt than seems likely.
13. If it is for a gratin it should coat a spoon thickly; loosen with more milk for anything to be poured. A film of cling pressed onto the surface stops a skin forming.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes