Classic Béchamel Sauce (Sauce Béchamel)
Tags: #classic-french #mother-sauce #foundation
Serving: 8 servings (about 1,000 ml)
Total time: 35 minutes
A silky, ivory mother sauce of milk thickened with a white roux and delicately infused with aromatics.
Ingredients
- 1,000 ml whole milk
- 100 g yellow onion, peeled and halved
- 0.4 g whole cloves (2 pieces)
- 0.3 g bay leaf (1 leaf)
- 80 g unsalted butter
- 80 g all-purpose flour
- 8 g fine sea salt
- 0.5 g ground white pepper
- 0.5 g freshly grated nutmeg
Steps
- Insert the cloves into the onion halves.
- Place the milk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
- Add the clove-studded onion and bay leaf to the milk.
- Heat the milk over medium heat until steaming and small bubbles form at the edge.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat.
- Cover the saucepan.
- Steep the milk for 15 minutes.
- Strain the milk through a fine-mesh sieve into a heatproof jug.
- Wipe the saucepan dry.
- Melt the butter in the saucepan over medium-low heat.
- Add the flour to the melted butter.
- Whisk the flour and butter until a smooth paste forms.
- Cook the roux for 2 to 3 minutes without browning.
- Reduce the heat to low.
- Add 200 ml of the hot infused milk to the roux.
- Whisk until completely smooth.
- Add another 200 ml milk.
- Whisk until smooth.
- Add another 200 ml milk.
- Whisk until smooth.
- Add another 200 ml milk.
- Whisk until smooth.
- Add the final 200 ml milk.
- Whisk until smooth.
- Increase the heat to medium.
- Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer.
- Reduce the heat to low.
- Simmer the sauce for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Stir the sauce frequently with a wooden spoon, reaching the corners of the pan.
- Skim any surface foam or skin.
- Add the salt.
- Add the white pepper.
- Add the nutmeg.
- Taste the sauce for seasoning.
- Add small amounts of hot milk if the sauce is too thick.
- Cook the sauce for 1 minute after any adjustments.