This is the basic recipe for classic Béchamel sauce and the overview of my other recipes that use this Béchamel.
A béchamel is the basis of a wide variety of recipes. It is very easy to learn how to make and, when prepared correctly, tastes really delicious. I recommend that you first boil the milk once with the flavoring ingredients. There are recipes that omit this step, but it makes a significant difference to the flavor of the bechamel sauce.
I always prepare as large a quantity as possible for such basic recipes. Therefore, in the following video you can see the recipe scaled up to 1 liter of milk. Béchamel sauce can be stored in the freezer for 1 year 🙂 .
You can also make the béchamel thinner or thicker, just vary the amount of flour and butter. Make sure here that flour and butter are always used in a 1:1 ratio.
Whether you use black or white pepper is your choice. Black is more aromatic, but you can see it in the light béchamel. As you can see from the pictures, flavor is more important to me. I don’t like white pepper.
Make sure that you continue cooking the sauce for 2-3 minutes after the béchamel has thickened, as indicated below. This will cause it to lose its taste of flour. If the sauce still has lumps after cooking, simply pass it through a sieve.
Basic recipe for Sauce Béchamel
Equipment
- Whisk
Ingredients
- 250 ml milk
- 1 slice onion (optional)
- 1 small bay leaf (optional)
- ½ tsp pepper corns
- 20 g butter
- 20 g flour
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Bring the onion, bay leaf and peppercorns to the boil in the milk and then leave to infuse for 10 minutes with the lid closed.
- For the roux, melt the butter in a separate pot and then add the flour.
- Stir in the flour with a whisk and let it sauté (while stirring) for about 1 minute, until the mixture is foaming.
- Set the saucepan off the heat and let it cool slightly.
- Pour the milk through a sieve (to filter out the aroma ingredients from step 1), stirring constantly with a whisk.
- Now put the pot back on the stove and bring the sauce to a boil while whisking constantly until it thickens.
- Now season the sauce with nutmeg, salt and pepper and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes. Make sure that it does not burn.
- If it does burn at the bottom of the pot, pour off the sauce without scraping off what has burned. With a bit of luck, the béchamel can still be used and won't taste burnt.
Please rate my recipe before you leave 🙂:
Video
Source of the recipe: Anne Willan – Die grosse Schule des Kochens: Zutaten – Techniken – Rezept.
Cooked with love on From zero to curry.
