How to make béchamel sauce

Béchamel sauce—which is essentially nothing more than milk thickened with butter and flour—is widely used in Italian cooking. It is not usually used as a ‘sauce’ per se but rather as a component in baked primi like lasagne alla bolognese, cannelloni, polenta pasticciata or crespelle al forno, as well as most sformati and gratins. It is therefore an important part of any Italian cook’s basic repertoire.

In Italy, you can buy pre-made shelf-stable béchamel, which is a great convenience. Elsewhere, however, you just need to make it ourselves. Fortunately, it is quick and (with a little practice) quite easy to make.

For most Italian dishes, you will be layering the sauce into a pasta dish for baking, you want to make a rather loose béchamel sauce as follows:

Ingredients

100g (4 oz) butter
50g (2 oz) flour
1 liter (1 quart) milk
Salt
Nutmeg

Directions

Melt a stick of butter (100g, 4 oz.) in a saucepan. Then add six spoonfuls (50g/2 oz. of flour and simmer the resulting roux over medium low heat for a few minutes, taking care not to allow the roux to darken. Remove from the heat.

In a separate saucepan, bring a liter (one quart) of milk just barely to a boil.

Immediately pour the milk into the pan with the roux. Taking a whisk, whip the roux and milk together vigorously. Then put the saucepan back on the heat and bring it up to the boil. It will thicken considerably when it gets to the boiling point.

As soon as the sauce begins to boil, lower the heat to low and simmer for about 5-10 minutes. Season well with salt and a scrape or two of nutmeg to taste.

Alternative method

I find the above method is practically fool-proof. But if you prefer not to dirty an extra saucepan and are fairly skilled in the kitchen, could can skip Step 2. aAnd as for Step 3, add cold milk, not all at once, but in a thin stream, as you whisk the roux vigorously.

This, in fact, is the method you will find specified in most Italian recipe books. While it is less trouble, you do need a fair degree of skill (and a strong arm) to avoid lumps.

The Easy Method: Wondra Flour

As I’m getting lazy in my old age, I’ve turned to a stupidly easy way to prepare béchamel using Wondra Flour. If you’re not familiar, Wondra is a is pre-cooked, dried, and ultra-finely milled white flour. It dissolves instantly in both hot and cold liquids.

Using Wondra flour all you need do is whisk the flour into the milk and bring it to a simmer. It will thicken as it warms up. That’s all there is to it! Since Wondra is pre-cooked, I find you don’t even need to simmer it to eliminate that raw flour taste.

Although you don’t need to, I like to add a knob of butter so it has the same richness as an old school béchamel.

Notes

The main pointer to bear in mind when making a good béchamel sauce, assuming you’re using either of the old school methods, include:

Cook the roux well

Otherwise your sauce will wind up tasting like raw flour—not very nice—without darkening the roux, which will give it an unpleasant burnt taste. (There are recipes where you want a brown roux, but this is not one of them.) So regulate the heat carefully; I also often add a bit of oil (not olive oil) which helps the butter not burning.

Use enough butter to give the end result a nice color and flavor.

The roux should not clump up but remain a rather liquid paste that covers the bottom of the saucepan.  If you find your roux is too thick, just add more butter or oil.

Avoid lumps

You can get lumps in your sauce if the roux does not fully amalgamate with the milk. Both old school methods indicated above are designed to avoid a lumpy sauce, but the alternative method does require some skill and a strong hand to keep that whisk beating as you pour in the milk. Keeping your roux rather liquid helps as well. (

If you do wind up with lumps, all is not lost. You can always pass the sauce through a fine mesh sieve or give it a good whiz in a blender.

Once thickened, simmer the béchamel for a few minutes over gentle heat

This develops its flavor, but be careful not to allow it to thicken too much. As mentioned, for most Italian recipes you want a rather loose béchamel. Remember that the sauce will cook and reduce further in the oven, and will be absorbed by the pasta, so you want a loose consistency, just a bit thicker than heavy cream.

If the sauce thickens too much, whisk in a bit more milk. The sauce will also thicken up as it cools, so bring it back up to heat and/or add more milk to thin it out before using it.

Making Béchamel Ahead

You can readily make béchamel up to a few hours ahead without hesitation. To avoid a film forming on the surface, however, cover it with a thin layer of milk or cream.

Bear in mind that as the sauce cools, it will solidify. This doesn’t much matter as it will turn creamy again once you bake your pasta or other dish. That said, if you need or want to bring your béchamel back to a creamy texture, just reheat it over a gentle flame, adding more milk as needed to achieve the consistency you want.

A Short History of Béchamel

According to most sources, béchamel sauce is a French sauce, invented in the 17^th century by La Varenne, chef to Louis XIV, and named in honor of the Louis de Béchamel, marquis of Nointel, who is sometimes erroneously identified as its inventor.

Some Italian authorities like Giuliano Bugialli maintain that Italians invented béchamel was invented by Italians. Or more propelry speaking its predecessor, the Florentine salsa colla. Like some many things, salsa colla was reputed to have been brought to France by Caterina de’ Medici. (I sometimes wonder how big her caravan must have been to have been able to have carried so many, many items to her new country!)

As for salsa colla, I have not yet been able to find much out about its origins or uses. If you look at some of the classic recipe books from earlier times, for example by Bartolomeo Scappi (1500-1577) or Martino di Como (15th century), the common thickeners were bread or breadcrumbs or, believe it or not, crushed almonds, not a roux.

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How to make béchamel sauce

Total Time15 minutes mins

Ingredients

• 100 g 4 oz butter
• 50 g 2 oz flour
• 1 liter 1 quart milk
• Salt
• Nutmeg

Instructions

• Step 1: Melt a stick of butter (100g, 4 oz.) in a saucepan, then add six spoonfuls (50g, 2 oz.) of flour and simmer the resulting roux over medium low heat for a few minutes, taking care not to allow the roux to darken, and remove from the heat.
• Step 2: In a separate saucepan, bring a liter (one quart) of milk just barely to a boil.
• Step 3: Immediately pour the milk into the pan with the roux. Taking a whisk, whip the roux and milk together vigorously, then put the saucepan back on the heat and bring it up to the boil. It will thicken considerably when it gets to the boiling point.
• Step 4: As soon as the sauce begins to boil, lower the heat to low and simmer for about 5-10 minutes, seasoning well with salt and a bit of nutmeg to taste.

Notes

Alternative method:

Skip Step 2 and as for Step 3, add cold milk, not all at once, but in a thin stream, as you whisk the roux vigorously. This, in fact, is the method you will find specified in most Italian recipe books. While it is less trouble, you do need a fair degree of skill (and a strong arm) to avoid lumps.

The Easy Method using Wondra Flour:

Whisk the flour into a milk and bring to a simmer. Add a knob of butter if desired and let it melt into the sauce. 

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