Homemade béchamel sauce: our tips to never miss it again

As a reminder…

Béchamel is a sauce made from a roux, moistened with milk. Roux is prepared by melting butter, to which flour is added. The mixture thus transforms into a sort of paste, which is softened with liquid, like milk in the case of béchamel.
The sauce can then be used to make a gratin, lasagna or croque-monsieur.

Tips for an unfailing béchamel

So much for so much

You no longer have the béchamel recipe in mind? No worries, there is a simple rule to do it. Remember: you must always use the same amount of butter as flour. Same thing for milk, but this time you will have to measure the quantity in centiliters. Concretely, this gives 50 g of butter and 50 g of flour, for 50 cl of milk or 500 ml depending on your scale. Very simple, isn’t it?

Low heat

If you are sometimes tempted to prepare your béchamel over high heat, we do not recommend it. Béchamel is a very white sauce, which should remain that way.

For this, the red that composes it must be barely colored. Melt the butter slowly, then add the flour, mixing well. No need to let it brown, the roux is ready when it is homogeneous and slightly golden. You can then add the milk, then let it thicken slowly.

Warm cold

In order to bind the sauce easily and make it smooth, it is important to create a thermal shock between the roux and the milk. For this, one must be very hot, while the other must be cold. In some recipes, it may be the milk, which is heated or vice versa. It doesn’t really matter, as long as your two elements have a large temperature difference.
Also be sure to mix vigorously to combine everything well.

Catch-up

Is your béchamel too liquid? First of all, check that it has cooked long enough. If you have just added the milk, it is normal that it does not yet have the desired consistency. On the other hand, if the sauce has still not thickened after 15 minutes, there is a problem! In this case, take a ladle of sauce, add 1 tbsp. of flour, mix well. Reincorporate this ladle of sauce into your liquid béchamel, whisk to avoid the appearance of lumps.
Repeat the operation if the sauce is still too liquid after a few minutes.

Conversely, your béchamel is much too thick, giving you the impression of working with mortar? To make up for it, this time add hot milk. Do this gradually, mixing vigorously between each addition, so as not to make it too liquid.

Finally, if your consistency is perfect, but a few lumps remain, a good blow with a hand blender should take care of the matter. No blender on hand? Pass your béchamel sauce through a fine mesh strainer. This will allow you to eliminate as many lumps as possible.

The recipe for homemade béchamel sauce

For 1 liter of béchamel

• 100g butter
• 100g of flour
• 1 l of cold milk
• salt pepper
• nutmeg

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.
Once it is completely melted and foamy, add the flour. Mix well to obtain a smooth and homogeneous texture. Be careful, the red must not color. Stop cooking and let it cool completely.
In a second saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.
Pour the boiling milk over the cold roux, little by little, while mixing.
When the milk is fully incorporated, return to cook over low heat, stirring constantly.
Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Remove the pan from the heat.

If you are not using the béchamel immediately, transfer it to a container. Place cling film on the surface of the sauce to prevent a crust from forming. We call this “contact filming”.

Variations of béchamel

Like tomato or Dutch sauce, béchamel is what we call a “mother sauce”. That is to say, it can serve as a basis for making many other sauces, called “girl sauces”.

Here are the sauces derived from béchamel.

• Aurore: béchamel + tomato paste
• Cream: béchamel + 1/3 crème fraîche
• Mornay: béchamel + grated emmental and/or parmesan
• Soubise: béchamel + sliced ​​onions, browned in butter
• Scottish: béchamel + chopped hard-boiled eggs
• Nantua: béchamel with crayfish butter

The case of vegan and gluten-free béchamel

Whether in the case of a vegan diet or food intolerances, it is very easy to make a vegetable and gluten-free béchamel.
To do this, replace flour with cornstarch, butter with oil or margarine, and cow’s milk with vegetable milk. Prefer soy or rice milk to oat or almond milk, which are slightly more distinctive. Otherwise, opt for a simple vegetable broth, it will be more economical and just as tasty.
Be careful, starch has a greater thickening power than flour. So divide the quantity by two to obtain the desired consistency. Example: for 1 liter of milk, count 100 g of butter and 50 g of starch.
Lighter and more digestible, this vegetable béchamel will find its place in your favorite recipes. You will see, to try it is to adopt it.

What to do with béchamel?

Cauliflower gratin, cheddar mac and cheese or gratinated endives, there are many ways to use béchamel. The proof in nine recipes.