Bechamel Sauce

Learn to make creamy silky Béchamel Sauce at home that need only 6 ingredients and 15 makes to make. This easy and better-than-store sauce is perfect base sauce for creamy pastas, lasagna, and rich sauces. Make once, use many ways. A must try! 

Since the Béchamel ingredients and process of cooking is so easy and simply, the art of making the best béchamel sauce is in the right temperature and quality of ingredients. Once you master that, you will always make a delicious, consistently rich and creamy Bechamel Sauce.

Let's get started!

To make Béchamel Sauce, you need these 6 ingredients:

1. Flour
2. Butter
3. Milk
4. Nutmeg
5. Salt
6. Black Pepper

I recommend to use unbleached all purpose white flour and good quality whole milk. Use unsalted butter to control the amount of salt as per taste.

How To Make Béchamel

To make Bechamel, always start by bringing the ingredients at equal temperature. i.e. Butter and Milk. A fridge-cold milk will yield a lumpy Béchamel. 

The technique of bringing sauce ingredients to same temperature is a generation-old culinary trick. It can be used for any sauce where ingredients are emulsified to make smooth sauce. 

So to start making Béchamel, first step is to heat milk until it is lukewarm. you can heat milk any ways you prefer:

1. Microwave is microwave safe container.
2. Add milk to a small sauce pan and leave on low heat while cooking flour and butter for béchamel.

Once milk is lukewarm, this is how to make Béchamel:

1. Melt butter in a wide, heavy-bottom sauce pan. Sprinkle flour over melted butter and cook stirring often until flour is cooked but not brown.
2. Add milk in two batches. First batch to bring down the temperature of flour-butter mixture.
3. In second batch all remaining milk goes in. This approach helps keep sauce temperature more even and hence does no lump. 
4. Let sauce thicken until it evenly coats back of spoon and leaves a clear line when removed  from spoon with finger. (check in the step 4 photo below)

TIP: If you still see lumpy sauce, don't worry. Lower the heat of stove. Use a Whisk to break the lumps and whisk continually until sauce thickens.

Cooling Down Béchamel Sauce

When cooling down sauce for later use, cover sauce surface with a plastic cling wrap. This prevents milk fats to collect on top and sauce stays smooth and creamy as when it was made.

Make Ahead

Béchamel is a perfect make-ahead sauce. A fresh cooked batch of Béchamel will stay good in refrigerated for 3-4 days. I recommend to let sauce come to room temperature. Refrigerated cover, in a container will lid, until ready to use. 

Friends, Béchamel is an ever-green white sauce that you can use in variety of dishes. I'm listing few recipes below in which I always use batch of fresh homemade béchamel. This weekend, make some, then try following recipes. I hope you will enjoy it as mush as we do.

Happy Cooking! --Savita