Béchamel

Name: Béchamel
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 25 min
Cuisine: France / Italy
Ingredients: 1 l (4¼ cups) whole milk; 1 bay leaf, optional; 60 g (4 tbsp) unsalted butter; 60 g (½ cup) all-purpose flour; 5 g (¾ tsp) fine sea salt; 1 pinch nutmeg, freshly grated; 1 pinch white or black pepper

The smooth white sauce behind lasagne, gratins and croque-monsieur

Makes: about 1 l (4 cups), medium thickness
Hands-on: 20 min
Total: 25 min
Level: Easy

Béchamel is milk thickened with a cooked butter-and-flour roux. Done right it is silky and tastes of milk and nutmeg, never of raw flour; the trick is cooking it long enough.

Ingredients

1 lwhole milk (4¼ cups)
1bay leafoptional
60 gunsalted butter (4 tbsp)
60 gall-purpose flour (½ cup)
5 gfine sea salt (¾ tsp)
1 pinchnutmegfreshly grated
1 pinchwhite or black pepper

Diet: Vegetarian
Allergens: gluten, milk
Origin: France / Italy

Method

Warm the milk with the bay leaf in a pan until steaming, about 5 minutes. Do not let it boil over.
In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon or whisk for 2–3 minutes until the roux bubbles, smells toasty and is the color of pale straw.
Remove the bay leaf. Pour about a quarter of the warm milk into the roux, whisking hard; it will seize and then loosen into a smooth paste.
Add the rest of the milk in three additions, whisking until smooth each time.
Bring to a gentle simmer, whisking often and scraping the corners of the pan, and cook for 8–10 minutes until it coats the back of a spoon thickly and tastes of milk, not flour. 10 min
Season with the salt, nutmeg and pepper. Use right away, or press a piece of baking paper onto the surface to stop a skin from forming.

Why it works

Cooking the flour in butter coats each starch granule in fat, so it disperses without lumping when the milk goes in, and toasting removes the raw cereal taste. The starch granules only swell and thicken fully near boiling point, and need several minutes at a simmer to lose their gritty, floury edge. Warm milk speeds this up and makes lumps less likely.

Common mistakes

Stopping as soon as it thickens: it tastes floury. Simmer the full 8 minutes.
Not scraping the corners: the sauce catches and scorches. Use a whisk or flat-edged spoon.
Lumps: whisk hard, or pass the sauce through a sieve. No one will know.

Variations

Thin béchamel (for soups): Use 40 g butter and 40 g flour per liter.
Thick béchamel (for croquettes and soufflés): Use 100 g butter and 100 g flour per liter; Moussaka uses this thickness.
Mornay (cheese sauce): Off the heat, stir in 100–200 g grated Gruyère or cheddar per liter and 1 tsp Dijon. Croque Madame uses a small, thick, cheesy batch for spreading; Baked Macaroni and Cheese a looser sauce with far more cheese, because the pasta soaks it up in the oven.

Make ahead and storage

Keeps 3 days in the fridge with paper pressed on the surface. It sets when cold; reheat gently, whisking in a splash of milk.

Notes

For a gluten-free version use 30 g cornstarch slaked in 60 ml of the cold milk, whisked into the remaining hot milk and simmered 2 minutes; it is glossier and less rich. Plant milk works but choose an unsweetened one.