How to make Bechemel Sauce

Bechamel sauce is a white sauce that is a basic sauce for so many ingredients, if you can master bechamel sauce you can make many different dishes with this simple sauce. This classic French sauce has three basic ingredients, and they are flour, butter, and milk. These three ingredients are all you need to get started making one of the world's most famous and most flexible sauces around.

To make basic bechamel sauce the ratio is very simple, think 1:1:1, one cup of milk, one tablespoon of flour, and one tablespoon of butter.

Bechamel Sauce recipe:

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

1 cup of milk best if milk is at room temperature or warmed slightly

In a medium sized pan over medium to medium high heat, melt one tablespoon of butter, when the butter is nice and bubbly, add in one tablespoon of flour. Stir and cook for about one minute, you want the flour to cook, otherwise your sauce will be pasty. After one minute you can add 1/3 cup of the milk, and stir until the mixture becomes thick, then add 1/3 cup of milk, stirring until thick, and then finally, add the remaining 1/3 cup of milk, and stir until this becomes thick.

A couple of tips in making Bechamel sauce are to use milk that is at room temperature or warmed slightly, because adding cold milk, may break the sauce meaning it looks gritty, while it doesn't taste any different, it looks unappealing.  Another suggestion is to make sure when just the flour and butter are cooking is that you don't let the butter brown, or let this mixture burn.  Your sauce will taste burnt, you need to start over if the butter and flour mixture burns.

Now you have Bechamel sauce. Wasn't that easy?

So now you have Bechamel sauce, what should you do?  

You could add 8 ounces of cheese to this sauce along with some dry mustard powder, and have a wonderful bowl of macaroni and cheese.

You could add 8 ounces of cheese to this, along with some salt and pepper and pour over your favorite steamed vegetables. 

Wanting a sauce for chicken or fish?  Add one teaspoon of dry mustard powder to your sauce, and you will have new tasty sauce. 

The possibilities of Bechamel sauce are endless.