Béchamel Sauce Recipe from a Chef

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is a chef, food photographer, cookbook author and blogger.
Here he shares recipes, answers cooking questions and helps with cooking.

Now I would like to introduce you to my Béchamel Sauce Recipe.

This sauce is the basic sauce and all-purpose weapon in the kitchen and belongs with its innumerable variation possibilities to the basics of the art of cooking.

ATTENTION Show-off knowledge: Louis de Béchamel (1630-1703) is the eponym of the legendary sauce and was the Lord Chamberlain of Louis XIV.

However, the history of the basic recipe is not clearly historically documented. The origin can also be derived from the sauce Mornay – developed in the kitchen of Count Philippe de Mornay.

The Mornay sauce contains cheese as well as flour and butter.

Both of us don’t care, because whether à la Béchamel or à la Mornay both sauces taste tasty and that’s what mattersI would like to show you step by step how to prepare the classic.

The sauce is a great addition to casseroles, soufflés or fillings. The most prominent example is the beloved lasagne.

1. Recipe Béchamel Sauce

The sauce is prepared quickly and I’ll step aside for you so you can get to work in your kitchen.

I wish you a lot of fun and would be happy to write to me. I always find cooking questions exciting and look forward to answering them!

Sauce Béchamel

Cooked, photographed and written down by chef Thomas Sixt.

Servings 4
Calories 225
Total Time 20 Min.
Preparation Time 5 Min.
Cook Time 15 Min.

Simple guide for the preparation of a béchamel sauce

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bechamel sauce recipe Image
Bechamel Sauce Recipe Image © Thomas Sixt

Ingredients

1 tsp oliv oil
1 l milk
70 g butter
3 pc shallots (or a medium-sized onion)
2 tbs flour (sieved)
1 cl dry white wine
1 tsp Salt
some Pepper (freshly grounded)
some nutmeg (freshly grated)
2 leafs Bay leaf
2 corns Piment

Instruction

fine onion cubes
Finely diced onion

Cut onions

Cut a medium-sized onion into small cubes.

Onion, bay leaves, butter in a saucepan
Onion, bay leaf, allspice and butter in a saucepan for bechamel sauce

Prepare sauce base

Heat up the pan, then add the onion cubes, butter, bay leaves and allspice and sauté.

Step picture Prepare bechamel sauce
We prepare the classic béchamel sauce with flour. In the detailed article I will show you a gluten-free variant of the popular sauce. © Thomas Sixt food photographer

Add flour

Sweat the onion cubes until translucent and add the flour.

Sweat the flour briefly.

White wine in bechamel sauce
White wine in bechamel sauce to deglaze

Deglaze

Add the white wine while stirring and bring to the boil.

Milk in bechamel sauce
Milk in bechamel sauce

Add Ingredients

Add cold milk while stirring constantly and bring to the boil.

Flavour with salt, pepper, nutmeg and cayenne pepper.

Béchamel binding
Check the binding of bechamel sauce

Binding sauce

Put some ready-made sauce on a cold plate and check the binding.

Bechamel and minced meat sauce on a pasta plate
Layer pasta plates with minced meat sauce and white sauce

Use sauce

Ready is the perfect sauce, e.g. for lasagne.

Enjoy your meal!

Video

Cousine

2. Calories and Nutritional Values

3. Variations of the Béchamel Sauce

I would like to recommend two sauces in particular from the sauces presented: Béchamel and Mornay. In the following table you can quickly see the differences

We both do not care, because whether à la Béchamel or à la Mornay both sauces taste delicious and that’s what counts

Serenity Tip from Chef Thomas Sixt!
SauceIngredientsFits to…
Béchamel basicbutter, flour, milk, nutmeg, salt, pepperlasagne, casseroles, soufflés, fillings
Béchamel Thomas Sixtbasic Béchamel-sauce, 3 shallots, white wine, pimento and bay leaflasagne, casseroles, soufflés, fillings
Mornay-Saucebasic Béchamel-sauce, 1 egg yolk, 100ml cream, 25g Gruyère, 25g Parmesan, salt and pepperpoached eggs, fish, casseroles
Mushroom-Béchamelbasic Béchamel-Sauce, 25g butter, 150 g mushrooms in fine slices, 3 tbs cream, salt and pepperpasta, veal escalope, poached eggs
Mustard-Béchamelbasic Béchamel-sauce, 2 tsp medium hot mustard, 40g butterfish, poultry, grilled meat

In casseroles like lasagna I would recommend a béchamel sauce in any case. This makes your casserole very creamy and reduces the acidity of the tomato a little.

Noodle plates layered with minced meat sauce and béchamel sauce. © Thomas Sixt Food Photographer

Sauce Mornay I very much like to use for fish, meat and vegetable or potato gratins.

Soßen Tipp von Koch Thomas Sixt
Add the prepared Mornay sauce to the potatoes. © Thomas Sixt Food Photographer

4. Tips for Bechamel Sauce and Gluten free

The classic white sauce consists of onions or shallots (finer in taste), bay leaf and peppercorns, butter, flour, dry white wine, milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

You can also prepare the light sauce gluten-free. You just have to use the “right” flour: The usual flours from the “gluten-free trade” or rice flour, corn flour, etc.

The sauce is prepared classically with a “Roux blond”. The flour is not browned during sweating. This offers another method of binding the sauce:

Prepare the béchamel sauce without flour and roux. Bind the sauce at the end with cornstarch. To do this, mix the cornstarch in cold water and add to the boiling sauce at the end. Wait for the sauce to boil and add more starch if necessary.

Gluten-free béchamel sauce bind tip from chef Thomas Sixt
We prepare the classic béchamel sauce with flour. This is also possible with gluten-free flour.  © Thomas Sixt Food Fotograf

5. More Ideas for Cooking by Yourself

Comments, Cooking Questions and Answers

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