Béchamel

A thick white sauce set with egg yolks, made stiffer than a sauce because it is a lid rather than a dressing.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains pecorino whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 120 g butter
• 120 g plain flour
• 1.2 litres whole milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 100 g kefalotyri or pecorino, grated
• a generous grating of nutmeg
• salt and white pepper

Method

1. THIS IS MADE STIFFER THAN A SAUCE BECAUSE IT IS A LID. Spooned over a bake it has to hold its own weight, take a browning and then cut into a square an hour later. A pouring consistency is right for a sauce and wrong here: it sinks into the layer beneath, and what comes out of the oven is a wet bake with a thin skin. It should fall off the spoon in a slab rather than a ribbon.
2. THE YOLKS ARE WHAT MAKE IT SLICEABLE and they go in off the heat. In the pan they scramble; in the finished sauce they set in the oven and turn it from a thick sauce into something that holds an edge.
3. THE FLOUR IS COOKED BUT NOT COLOURED. Two minutes in the butter is enough to take the raw taste out. Browned, it both tastes nutty -- wrong here -- and loses thickening power, so the same weight gives a looser sauce.
4. Milk warmed in a separate pan. Cold milk into a hot roux is the usual cause of lumps and makes the whole thing take twice as long.
5. Butter melted in a heavy pan over a medium heat until it foams but does not colour.
6. Flour in all at once and stirred hard, 2 minutes, until it is a smooth paste that smells biscuity.
7. Warm milk added a ladleful at a time, whisking each one in completely before the next. The first two will look alarming and seize; keep going and it comes smooth.
8. Once all the milk is in, simmered 10 MINUTES over a low heat, stirred constantly and scraping the base. This is the step most often cut to three and it is where the floury taste goes.
9. Seasoned with salt, white pepper and a good grating of nutmeg -- more than feels right, because it disappears into a bake.
10. OFF THE HEAT. Cheese stirred in until melted, then left 3 minutes to cool slightly.
11. Yolks beaten in one at a time, fast, each disappearing before the next.
12. Used at once while it is still spreadable. It sets firm as it cools and a cold béchamel has to be warmed and loosened before it will spread.

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 Greece · All recipes