Recipe/BechamelSauce

OMGAwesomeSauce?.

The first of the MotherSauces? that ElliottBelser learned how to make in his BasicCulinary? class.

You will need:

-About a half-cup of all-purpose flour

...and as an EagleLand?er, I just realized that it might be called something different in the UnitedKingdom. The kind with more gluten content than cake flour, but less than bread flour.

Plain flour. --K

: Ah. Noted, and thank you.

-About a half-cup of clarified butter.

: To clarify butter, melt it, put it into a container, and let it sit until the milk solids sink to the bottom. The oil at the top is clarified butter.

-A pint of half-and-half.

Traditionally, either cream or milk is used, but I've found cream too rich and milk not enough.

British note! Semi-skimmed. --CH

...the sad thing is that I caught that All Purpose flour was an Americanism, and not this. Oh well. - ElliottBelser

No! AIUI, half-and-half is richer than full-fat milk - it's half milk, half cream. Whereas semi-skimmed milk is lighter than full-fat milk, being milk with half the fat removed. Probably doesn't matter enormously for /BechamelSauce, but could be a big deal in other recipes. --Rachael

Oh. I've been getting that wrong repeatedly, then... --CH

We call that 1% milk... InAmerica?! - ElliottBelser

That's milk with three quarters of the fat removed. IIRC it can't legally be sold as milk in the EU, although there are moves afoot to change that. (The legal categories in the UK being full-fat, semi-skimmed and skimmed, with permissible fat ranges around 4%, 2% and 0% respectively). --PT

: 2% milk then. - Guess. Just guess.

-Half an onion.

-A bay leaf.

-Two to five cloves.

-A pinch of cayenne pepper (light chili powder).

-A pinch of ground nutmeg.

-Pepper, preferably white pepper.

-Salt.

-Fry the flour in the clarified butter. It should begin to bubble and froth, and smell slightly like popcorn. Fry until cooked through, but no longer: This forms a pale roux, which will thicken the sauce later. Set it aside and let it cool.

-Stud the half onion with cloves. Put the half-and-half on at moderate temperature. Float the onion in the half-and-half. Do not let it scorch.

-When it starts to form a froth, stir in the cooled roux, then turn the temperature down to low. Add all the spices save the salt.

: It's imperative that the roux and the cream be at different temperatures, or else the sauce won't thicken nearly as much.

-Let it cook off until, when you stick a spoon in it, you can then write by wiping the sauce off. Add salt to taste.

Bechamel being a MotherSauce, adding different flavorings is a big part of the fun.

Add copious amounts of ParmesanCheese? and it becomes Alfredo sauce, which I like to add either clams and a little vanilla extract to, or else sliced sauteed mushrooms.

I also like to add CheddarCheese? and GruyereCheese?, mix it with cooked ElbowMacaroni?, add a breadcrumb topping and bake it off for MacCheese?.

Recipe, CategoryFood