I’ll start you off with a basic Béchamel (white sauce):
- Take your roux and your carton of milk and pour a bit of milk into the roux, once again there is no set amount here, just add a little bit, start with ¼ c. and go from there. Make sure the heat isn’t too high as you don’t want to burn your sauce.
- After adding the first amount of milk stir it well, a whisk helps here, until the milk is completely absorbed and the sauce thickens up again.
- Continue adding a little milk and stirring well, adding milk and stirring well until the sauce no longer thickens up and is a nice sauce consistency.
- Now if you taste your sauce it will probably taste like flour. So leave your sauce on the heat and let it cook, stirring very regularly.
- You will notice that the sauce will start turning white and a nice almost nutty smell will start to emanate from the pot. Once the sauce is a light color then the flour taste should be gone.
- Some cookbooks will tell you to lower the heat on the sauce and let it simmer for 25-30 minutes to remove the flavor of the flour, it’s up to you, find what works best for you and go with it.
- Add just a bit of salt and pepper or other seasonings for a basic white sauce or create a small sauce.
- Add some extra pepper and Cajun seasoning for a spicy sauce.
- Add a bunch of parmesan cheese or pepper jack and a bit of dry mustard to make a nice and thick cheese sauce.
- Add some scalded cream and lemon juice to make a cream sauce
A simple Béchamel sauce:
- 1 onion piquet
- Milk
- White roux
- Salt and white pepper
- Nutmeg
- Simmer the onion piquet and milk in a heavy saucepan for
about 20 minutes (change the simmer time depending on
the amount of flavor you want added)
- Remove the onion piquet from the milk and while
continually whisking, add the milk to the roux. Bring to a
boil.
- Lower the heat, add the other seasonings to taste and
simmer for around 30 minutes.
- Strain the sauce through cheesecloth to make it nice and smooth. If you're not going to use the sauce right away you can carefully add a layer of melted butter over the surface to prevent a skin from forming.
