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Questions tagged [bechamel]

A sauce made of butter and flour cooked together (creating a roux), used to thicken a milk base. Also commonly known as white sauce.

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What's the best way to make Béchamel sauce?

When I make Béchamel sauce I keep getting different results. Sometimes the sauce becomes too liquidy and never seems to firm up. Other times it might get quite lumpy, despite my use of a recipe that has worked fine in the past. Are there any general…
Willbill
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Why should I cook the flour first when making bechamel sauce?

Why should I cook the flour first with butter, instead of just combining all the ingredients until I get the desired consistency when making a bechamel sauce?
Michael Ben David
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How do I get the best possible texture when making vegetable cream soups?

Many recipes call for straining the almost finished soup to get rid of any extra chunky bits and get the best mouthfeel. But I am really confused, because with any reasonably fine sieve I filter out almost all of the vegetable matter and end up with…
VoY
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What's the purpose of nutmeg in mashed potatoes and white sauce?

I've seen lots of recipes that call for a pinch of nutmeg in mashed potatoes and in white sauce. It's not very much and just provides a slight elusive flavour. I do enjoy it, but often don't bother with it and I'm just wondering what the purpose…
Allison
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Milk temperature for white sauce

Should I introduce the milk hot or cold when making white (béchamel) sauce? Searching around I found multiple opposite opnions, like on this answer (see the comments). Also different advice from famous chefs: "heat the milk in a separate pan until…
talles
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Can I make a béchamel sauce with coconut cream?

I want to make a béchamel sauce with coconut cream instead of milk. Does anybody have a guess whether this will work?
Andrey
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Can you use the butter from frying onions to make the Bechamel for Soubise sauce?

Traditionally, onions are slowly braised in butter before being drained, puréed and added to a pre-prepared Bechamel sauce to make Soubise sauce. This seems a terrible waste of flavour, if you were to make the Bechamel last of all with the…
Greybeard
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Why isn't my mornay sauce smooth?

I've been reading the Geek Cookbook, and decided to try the Mac & Cheese recipe from it, making the sauce from scratch - seemed simple enough! I've never made a Bechamel or Mornay sauce before, though, so this was new to me. I made the roux fine,…
Nick Johnson
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How would I produce (stable) foamy bechamel sauce?

I recently ate a dish that was topped with a foamy bechamel sauce. It had the same creamy taste a traditional bechamel has but was much fluffier and less set, a bit like a mousse. I would like to reproduce this but I am not sure whether a foamer…
Giorgos
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How to include soy milk in bechamel

A visitor has left a nearly full bottle of soy milk in our fridge. Personally, I hate the taste of soy milk, I find it too sweet and nutty for me, yet I feel compelled to use it up somehow. I am going to make a bechamel sauce for a lasagne, and…
KimbaF
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White sauce without roux

Recently I have been making white sauce by: heating the milk in a pan until nearly boiling mixing corn flour with a small amount of cold milk removing milk from stove add corn flour mix to hot milk stir until thick. This is very fast and never…
Tim Galvin
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Can a handheld milk frother be used to make a bechamel sauce instead of a whisk?

Has anyone tried this and did it work? I'm curious if it would give a similar, or maybe even better result compared to hand whisking. Edit: I don't have a milk frother right now, and was thinking of buying one for this.
RocketHog55
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Can I use fat-free milk in béchamel?

Can I use a fat free milk to make the sauce? Should I add more butter to the roux if I do so?
Vinicius Kamakura
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Béchamel and pomodoro

Is there any traditional recipe that uses béchamel (white sauce) and pomodoro (tomato sauce) mixed, making a new (orange-ish) sauce? Is there a name for this sauce? I often do this mixture but I've never seen it in any recipe.
talles
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Can self-raising flour be used in lieu of plain flour when making a roux for a bechamel?

I have plenty of self-raising flour (which will easily take me until its best before date to use) but am running very low on plain flour which I use predominantly for making a roux and then ultimately a bechamel. Given the current circumstances it…
Rob
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