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Bechamel sauce classic

Classic Béchamel Sauce

Quick to make, from everyday ingredients, delicious and silky! Classic béchamel sauce goes wonderfully with meat, fish, or vegetable dishes. It's great as a sauce for any side dish. With it, you can make a delicious lasagna or the most delicate soufflé. And it's also the base for more elaborate sauces!

Yulia

Recipe author

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Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Butter

Vegetable oil

Wheat flour

2.5

Milk

380

Salt

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 9 % 3 g

Fats 67 % 22 g

Carbohydrates 24 % 8 g

239 kcal

GI: 50 / 0 / 50

Cooking method

Cooking time: 20 min

Step 1:

How do you make classic white béchamel sauce? Gather the ingredients. Use odorless vegetable oil. The milk shouldn't be cold — warm it slightly over low heat. This makes it easier to get a smooth sauce.
Step 2:

Use a heavy-bottomed pot or saucepan for the sauce. Don't use an enameled pan here, or the sauce will stick to the bottom. Melt the butter in the pot over low heat.
Step 3:

Add the vegetable oil to the pot and stir well.
Step 4:

Add the sifted flour to the butter and stir thoroughly until the lumps disappear. It's best to use a whisk, which makes it easier to get a smooth mixture; a spoon is harder. Over low heat, stirring constantly, toast the flour until golden.
Step 5:

Pour in the warm milk in a thin stream, in small amounts (3–4 tablespoons at a time). It's very important to keep stirring vigorously at the same time, until each addition of milk is fully blended into the flour mixture.
Step 6:

The most important thing is not to rush. Add the milk gradually. If you pour in a lot of milk at once, lumps are inevitable. Stirring actively, add all the milk in stages.
Step 7:

Stir the sauce thoroughly until completely smooth. Salt the sauce.
Step 8:

Cook the sauce over low heat to the consistency you want. Be sure to keep stirring constantly so it doesn't scorch or turn lumpy. If the sauce is too thick, add more milk; if it's too thin, cook it down to the right thickness. But keep in mind that the sauce thickens as it cools.
Step 9:

Use béchamel sauce in all sorts of dishes, or as a sauce on its own. Enjoy!

At the end of cooking, you can add various spices to the béchamel, depending on the dish you're using the sauce for.
Use an oil with a high smoke point for frying! Any oil is good only up to a certain temperature — its smoke point, at which the oil begins to burn and forms toxic substances, including carcinogens. Unrefined oils, with rare exceptions, have a low smoke point. They contain a lot of unfiltered organic particles that quickly start to burn. Refined oils are more heat-stable and have a higher smoke point. If you're going to cook in the oven, in a pan, or on the grill, make sure you use an oil with a high smoke point. The most common high-smoke-point oils are refined sunflower, olive, and grapeseed oil.