All-Purpose Milk Sauce (Béchamel)
A delicate milk sauce that takes everyone back to childhood. It's wonderfully versatile: depending on what you add, it can dress up both savory and sweet dishes, lending them a soft, gentle flavor. It comes together fast and easy, with ingredients you already have on hand.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
For this all-purpose milk sauce you'll need milk, flour, butter, and salt.
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Step 2:
Toast the flour in a dry skillet, stirring constantly and not letting it color. You're after just a faint, nutty aroma. Toasting the flour makes the sauce taste better and helps prevent lumps when you whisk in the milk.
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Step 3:
Tip the flour onto a plate and let it cool.
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Step 4:
Return the flour to the cooled skillet. Whisking constantly, pour in about a third of the milk and stir thoroughly until no lumps remain.
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Step 5:
Pour in the rest of the milk, add salt, and stir.
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Step 6:
Bring the sauce to a boil, stirring often. This is the point to stir in any extras (herbs or spices), depending on what you'll be serving the sauce with.
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Step 7:
Cook the sauce over low heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until it thickens slightly.
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Step 8:
Add the softened butter and stir until it's fully melted in. Let the sauce come back to a boil, then take it off the heat.
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Step 9:
Pour the milk sauce into a gravy boat or small bowl. Serve it warm or hot over sweet or savory casseroles, meatballs, pasta, or whatever else you like. Enjoy!
- These proportions make a thin milk sauce — a consistency that's great with cottage cheese dishes, grain dishes, and pasta. For a thicker sauce, just double the flour and butter. Don't melt the butter ahead of time; simply take it out of the fridge early so it softens. If you're serving the sauce with sweet bakes or cottage cheese pancakes, stir in some sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, or dried orange zest. For pasta or meatballs, it pairs nicely with various spices — paprika, nutmeg, or ginger — and fresh herbs. Kids especially love it over cottage cheese dishes like casseroles or pancakes, where it adds a soft flavor and aroma. For an apple-and-cottage-cheese casserole, I add a little sugar and cinnamon to the sauce.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Whole cow's milk - 68 kcal/100g
- Milk 3.5% fat content - 64 kcal/100g
- Milk 3.2% fat content - 60 kcal/100g
- Milk 1.5% fat content - 47 kcal/100g
- Concentrated milk 7.5% fat content - 140 kcal/100g
- Milk 2.5% fat content - 54 kcal/100g
- Butter 82% - 734 kcal/100g
- Amateur unsalted butter - 709 kcal/100g
- Unsalted peasant butter - 661 kcal/100g
- Peasant salted butter - 652 kcal/100g
- Melted butter - 869 kcal/100g
- Salt - 0 kcal/100g
- Wheat flour - 325 kcal/100g
