Béchamel Sauce with Nutmeg

Béchamel is easy to make and elegant in flavor! The basic white sauce — a true classic.

Recipe author

Servings:

Butter

All-purpose flour

Milk

300

Nutmeg

0.5

Salt

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 15 % 4 g

Fats 44 % 12 g

Carbohydrates 41 % 11 g

168 kcal

GI: 36 / 0 / 64

Cooking method

Cooking time: 20 min

Step 1:

For classic béchamel, gather good butter (at least 82.5% butterfat — from experience, I wouldn't use anything lower), milk, flour, salt, and nutmeg. The nutmeg can be pre-ground, but a whole nutmeg you grate yourself is undoubtedly much better. I happen to have one that a friend brought back from Tunisia.
Step 2:

First, heat the milk well — not to a boil, but close to it. It should be nice and warm.
Step 3:

Melt the butter in a saucepan. A nonstick saucepan is handy, or you can use a skillet — it depends on how much sauce you're making.
Step 4:

Now add a spoonful or two of flour right into the melted butter and stir it together well.
Step 5:

A silicone or wooden spatula works well for this. Do everything over the lowest heat.
Step 6:

Now work all the milk into the butter-flour mixture. Do this gradually, adding just a spoonful or two at a time and stirring it into the sauce right away.
Step 7:

The béchamel will gradually thicken; once all the milk is in, it should be about the consistency of light sour cream, falling in a medium-thick ribbon.
Step 8:

Finally, stir in the grated nutmeg, warm it through once more, and that's it — your classic béchamel is ready!
Step 9:

This sauce is the foundation of many dishes — lasagna, pasta — and the base for other well-known sauces too.
Step 10:

The classic béchamel sauce is ready!

Béchamel (also simply called white sauce) is one of the most common and famous sauces. It has a refined aroma and a pleasant flavor, and both the Italians and the French lay claim to its origins — not without reason. Setting that debate aside, suffice it to say it first won over Europe and then spread around the world. Béchamel is a base sauce, used both on its own and as the foundation for many dishes and other sauces — for example, Mornay (served with seafood, with Parmesan added) and Soubise (with onion added, ideal for fish and poultry).