You've probably heard about the five basic sauces of French cuisine? They are also called “mother” sauces or “great” sauces. They form the basis of the culinary tradition of France, they can be found in a huge number of recipes, and the large-scale and world-famous “edifice” of French cuisine is built on them.
Perhaps, standing on a par with veloute, espagnole, hollandaise and tomato sauces, bechamel is still half a step ahead - maybe because it is more famous? Or because it is especially delicate and versatile and goes well with a huge number of dishes? Or is the secret of its popularity in the special aura that is created around the Bechamel sauce - an aura of sophistication and elegance? Be that as it may, this particular recipe is the main one of the five parts that form the “backbone” of French cooking.
Knowing how to cook bechamel is practically a rule of good manners. Agree, you can’t show up in the kitchen, declare yourself a guru and start impressing guests without first learning the basics and theory. So, in order to become a chef, among other exams, you will have to pass a test specifically on the ability to cook the right bechamel - this is that undeniable and necessary basis. Let's figure it out.
Conventionally, Bechamel sauce can be divided into two parts: rublon or roux (French roux - red) and milk (cream).
Rublon is flour mixed with butter, fried until lightly golden. The standard proportion is 1:1, although some chefs sometimes change it depending on their own preferences.
The amount of milk added to the sauce can also vary significantly in different versions. Depending on the thickness of the sauce you need, you will need a little more or a little less liquid. The general rule is this: for liquid bechamel sauce add 120-180 g of roux per 1 liter of milk, for thick sauce - 300 g of roux per 1 liter of milk (thick, “like paste”, bechamel is the basis, for example, of soufflé). It’s easy to remember this ratio (for a sauce of medium thickness): parts of roux = 1 to 1, milk = 5 times the sum of the parts of roux. So, if you take 50 g of butter and flour, then pour in 500 ml of milk.
The basic, classic bechamel sauce is minimalistic - it's milk, flour, butter, salt and pepper. This sauce is the basis for the preparation of other sauces or part of dishes - lasagna, moussaka, dishes with spinach, complex pastas. But most often, milk for making Bechamel sauce is pre-flavored - with herbs, roots, spices. The goal is to give neutral dishes a more expressive taste, such as baked fish or a slice of chicken fillet. To do this, add the required set of natural flavors to cold milk (nutmeg, rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram, thyme, dill, onion, garlic, coriander, caraway, parsnip or parsley root), and then slowly bring to a boil - it is believed that only This is how the aromas of herbs and roots are revealed best. After boiling, turn off the fire, cover the pan with a lid and leave for 2-3 hours to infuse. After the specified time, the milk must be strained through cheesecloth or a fine sieve and only then used to prepare the sauce.
From the history of sauce
In general, the story is as simple as the world: they say that the famous sauce was invented by Louis Bechamel, the majordomo of Louis XIV, the king who ensured the flourishing of an absolute monarchy for his country. Alas, there is no intrigue, interesting turns of events or secret intricacies, despite the fact that the era itself was characterized by an abundance of mysteries and secrets. However, there is one “zest” in the loud but short epic called “Béchamel”: historians strongly doubt that the invention of the recipe belongs personally to the king’s manager of affairs, the eponymous Mr. Béchamel. Most likely, the sauce was first prepared by one of the court chefs, but the cunning majordomo, sensing how he could earn the favor of the king, quickly attributed the invention to his own person.
The famous “white sauce” was first mentioned in Le Cuisinier François in 1651 - the book was written by the court cook of Louis XIV, François Pierre de La Farenne, and it was he who left a written indication of the newfangled sauce. After this, the culinary manual was republished many, many dozens of times (only in the next 75 years - at least 30 times!), The popularity of the sauce continued to grow.
There was no exact recipe in the book, however, there is reason to assert that bechamel has survived to this day practically unchanged: the same wheat flour, the same high-quality butter, the same milk.
Classic recipe for Bechamel sauce
To start experimenting and creating, you need to learn how to implement a basic sauce recipe. In fact, there is nothing complicated, a little practice - and you will succeed!
Ingredients:
50 g butter;
50 g flour;
500 ml milk with 2.5% fat content;
salt, ground white pepper.
Melt the butter over low heat. Make sure that the oil is not fried; in this case, the sauce will not turn out white, but yellow or brown.
Add flour to the melted butter and begin to quickly rub it into the butter with a wooden spatula and whisk. It will take you 1-2 minutes to combine the flour and butter - during this time the mixture will foam slightly.
In a thin stream and in small portions (literally a spoon or two), start adding cold (!) milk, each time stirring and beating the sauce until smooth. The fire is as low as possible, or remove the pan from the stove altogether. Enter a smaller portion of milk - 100-150 grams. When it becomes clear that there are no lumps in the sauce, add the remaining milk, increase the heat to medium, bring to a boil and cook the sauce over medium heat for 5-7 minutes. Don't forget to stir constantly!
Season the finished sauce with salt and pepper.
The sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than 3 days, covered with oiled film.
White sauce with nutmeg
This sauce - with spices - is known even better than the classic version. The principle of preparation and the proportions of ingredients are the same, only more milk may be used since we will cook it. What spices are used most often? Nutmeg, as well as bay leaf, cloves, ground peppers. You can add a small onion and other spices and herbs, or you can get by with just nutmeg.
Ingredients:
50 g butter;
50 g flour;
600 g milk;
salt, nutmeg, spices and herbs to taste.
Prepare the roux as described above. Let it cool.
Grind the herbs and spices in a mortar, place in a cloth bag and place in cold milk. Bring to a boil, then cook for 10-15 minutes. Discard the spice bag (if you didn't have one, be sure to strain the milk through a sieve). Add hot milk to 500 ml if it has boiled down too much.
Place cold roux into hot milk. Stir. If the milk has cooled down, put it on the stove, but do not bring it to a boil - we need hot milk, as it is before it boils.
Whisk the roux until the sauce is smooth.
Watch this wonderful video of Gordon Ramsay making bechamel sauce with cheese in his inimitable style. It is not necessary to understand English, you can even turn off the sound - you will understand everything without it.
Vegan bechamel
If for some reason you cannot temporarily or permanently eat animal products (diet, fasting, vegetarianism), no problem: you can make Bechamel sauce without milk! Read carefully, it's very tasty.
Ingredients:
200 g cashew nuts;
350 ml water;
60 g flour;
2 tbsp. l. olive oil;
salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste.
Pour boiling water over raw cashews and leave for 4-5 minutes, then pour out the water, place the nuts in a blender bowl and fill with clean water again - this time cold, add 300 ml. Turn on the blender, bring the mixture until completely smooth, gradually pour in the remaining 50 ml of water, and if necessary, dilute the resulting nut milk with a little more liquid.
Mix flour with olive oil and lightly fry in a saucepan. Pour in the nut milk in a thin stream with constant stirring, stir until completely smooth. Cook over low heat until thickened. Finally add salt, pepper and nutmeg. If necessary, the resulting sauce can be strained through a fine sieve.
Tomato sauce "Béchamel"
A very non-standard combination, a kind of anti-white sauce, but still it is bechamel, albeit not in the usual “clothing”. Try it by all means! The sauce is perfect for pasta, sandwiches, and baked potatoes.
Ingredients:
50 g butter;
50 g flour;
500 ml milk;
1 tbsp. l. tomato puree;
salt and pepper to taste.
Grind the butter with flour, place the mixture in a frying pan with a thick bottom or in a saucepan and, stirring, lightly fry until light golden brown (for details, see above, in the basic recipe). Pour in milk in a thin stream, literally 50 ml at a time. After each “dose”, knead the flour mixture until completely homogeneous. Gradually add all the milk. At the end, add salt, pepper, spices and tomato puree. Stir, the sauce is ready.
How to cook Bechamel in the microwave
Of course, this recipe is far from a classic - it can’t even be called canonical. However, it can be a great help for those who want to cook, but prefer to do it with minimal time and effort.
Ingredients:
50 g flour;
50 g butter;
600 ml milk;
salt, nutmeg and other spices to taste.
Grind the melted butter with flour, place the bowl in the microwave for 1.5 minutes at maximum power.
Take it out and pour in all the milk in a thin stream, stirring constantly. A homogeneous mass is needed. Return the bowl back to the microwave for 4.5-5 minutes, maximum power. Periodically pause the cooking process and stir the contents of the bowl. At the end, add salt and nutmeg, mix well and strain through a fine sieve.
If you need a thicker sauce, increase the cooking time to 6 minutes.
- Use the right cookware - a thick, non-stick pan with one handle. Grind and stir with a wooden spatula and a convenient whisk.
- The main secret to a homogeneous, smooth, lump-free bechamel is the temperature of the sauce parts. Their contrasting, diametrically opposed temperatures: if the roux is hot, cold milk should be poured in, and vice versa: hot milk should interact with the cold roux. It is acceptable if both are warm, other options other than those listed are a recipe for disappointment. But if, nevertheless, the sauce turns out to be lumpy and completely unsuitable for consumption, pick up a blender and run it thoroughly through the resulting mass.
- Cooking time for the sauce after boiling is 5-7 minutes. In textbooks on French cooking you will find the following recommendation: “Cook the sauce for no more than 10 and no less than 40 minutes, since in 10 minutes the taste of raw flour will not have time to develop, and in 40-60 minutes the sauce will lose the taste of raw flour.” This is a scientifically proven fact. Classic bechamel is cooked according to all the rules for about an hour. Briefly, quickly, in less than 10 minutes, prepare bechamel at home.
- Don't over-fry the flour - it should just be slightly golden, creamy and have a subtle nutty smell. If the flour darkens thoroughly, the sauce will be bitter, and it will also lose its color - after all, you are preparing a white sauce. The color of the sauce is delicately light beige, light cream, without pronounced brown or yellow notes.
- Do not try to speed up what should a priori be cooked slowly. The heat under the frying pan should be minimal; it will only become medium at the final stage, when you pour all the milk into the pan. Burnt sauce is not the best alternative to saving time.
- The classic component of Bechamel sauce is milk. Sour cream and other fermented milk “comrades” will inevitably curdle, this is not an option. However, you can take the cream, but it should be borne in mind that the cream are also not the simplest guys, they can also play tricks with their ears and curl up at the most inopportune moment. For this reason, many cooks dilute them with broth - vegetable or meat.
- Bechamel is beautiful with its viscous, delicate consistency and creamy aftertaste. No one forbids the use of spices when preparing it, however, keep in mind that the creamy aroma must remain the leading one, everything else should stand modestly on the sidelines and only highlight the main idea of the sauce.
- The sauce can be made liquid, or it can be very thick - it depends on your further goals. The “correct” consistency of a universal homemade bechamel will allow the mass to flow evenly from the spoon, slightly enveloping it with residue. Under no circumstances should the finished product fall into a thick lump, nor should it rapidly flop down into a liquid, indistinct something. If the sauce is too thick, dilute it with milk and then heat it up. Thicken any roux that is too thin with a roux specially prepared for this purpose, and then simmer for another minute.
- If you serve bechamel to the table as an accompaniment to certain prepared dishes (and do not use it as a component of a recipe), it must be served hot - as it cools, the sauce will become crusty, which is completely unacceptable. Therefore, serve warm and use immediately. Well, or almost urgently.
- If you make too much sauce, the leftovers can be safely stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Be sure to cover thoroughly with cling film or pour the sauce into an airtight container.
What to use Bechamel sauce with? 10 available ideas:
- Lasagna. Classic. Of course, there are recipes for making lasagna without bechamel sauce, but still the main and most popular recipe involves its use; many seriously believe that lasagna without bechamel is like borscht without beets.
- Paste. Bechamel is one of the most popular sauces served with spaghetti, penne, tagliatelle and other pasta. The creamy aroma and enveloping structure turn any pasta into an almost masterpiece.
Mushroom béchamel sauce
- Casseroles, tarts and pies. If the filling that you planned to put in the pie seems a little dry to you, a little bechamel will not only save the situation - it will transform it to incredible results! Boiled fish, fried minced meat, unleavened vegetables - everything will be wonderful and tasty in the company of this sauce.
- Pancakes. If you mix mushrooms, fried onions, boiled chicken fillet, a little grated cheese and bechamel, you can make an amazing pancake filling. Form them into “bags”, tie them with a feather of green onion - you have a delicious snack ready.
- Baked fish. Place any neutral-tasting fish (sturgeon, pike perch, cod, hake, pangasius) in a baking dish, pour Bechamel sauce mixed with lightly fried mushrooms and cheese over it, bake until cooked. Simple, elegant, delicious.
- Oven-baked or steamed vegetables - cauliflower, potatoes, celery root, broccoli, pumpkin and others.“Béchamel” will give discreet-tasting and often rather bland vegetables an interesting flavor note. A little grated Parmesan - and an incredibly healthy, tasty and aromatic dinner is ready.
- Asparagus. Classics of the genre. Asparagus and bechamel are made for each other! The taste is refined, delicate, very delicate and “clean”.
- Eggs. Cooked in the oven with Bechamel sauce, they will become a real feast of taste! Add some sautéed spinach to the ramekins and get the famous Eggs Florentine.
- Sandwiches. Down with harmful mayonnaise, try seasoning the components of sandwiches and burgers with classic “white” sauce. By the way, this is an excellent reason to learn how to cook Croque Monsieur - this sandwich is impossible without the famous bechamel.
- Julienne. Yes, yes, season the chicken, mushrooms and cheese with the classic Bechamel sauce and get a delicious dish in its perfection.
Today, it is no longer so important who was the first to come up with the idea of preparing a milk sauce based on flour and butter, it does not matter what spices can be added to the milk and what proportion to choose in order to make the ideal Bechamel sauce from the point of view of a particular person. Another thing is important: based on the classic recipe, cooks tirelessly come up with new and new recipes. Who knows, maybe very soon we will hear something unusual from you? Dare and do not be afraid, many wonderful discoveries were made by amateurs.
White Bechamel sauce is one of the main sauces of French cuisine; it goes well with many hot dishes of meat, fish or vegetables, and is also ideal for casseroles, lasagna and moussaka. Making Bechamel sauce at home is very simple, and today we will do it.
- 400 ml milk
- 1 small onion, cut into 4 pieces
- 25 g wheat flour (1 full tablespoon)
- 25-30 g butter
- 1-2 bay leaves
- 1 pinch ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp. without a hill of Provençal herbs (basil, thyme, oregano)
- sprig of parsley
- 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
- salt to taste
Preparation:
It is better to prepare Bechamel sauce in a Teflon container.
Pour the milk into a small ladle or saucepan and put it on the fire.
Peel the onion and cut into 4 parts.
Add chopped onion, nutmeg, a mixture of dry herbs, ground black pepper, bay leaf, parsley and salt to taste to the ladle with milk. Lightly stir the seasonings. Bring the milk to a boil, turn off the stove and leave the milk to cool and at the same time infuse, soak in the aroma of the additives.
After about 30-40 minutes, strain the milk through a sieve.
Melt the butter over low heat and add flour to it.
Stir vigorously with a whisk for about 1 minute.
After this, add the strained milk in small portions, continuing to stir all the time so that there are no lumps. Bring to a boil, boil for 2-3 minutes and turn off. As a result, we get this ready-made Bechamel sauce:
Its thickness can be adjusted by adding hot milk.
Now you know how easy it is to make Bechamel sauce at home and can use it as a seasoning for various hot dishes or for lasagna and casseroles.
Bechamel sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for a short time if you pour a thin layer of melted butter over its surface. When heated, it does not lose its taste properties. But it’s better, of course, to consume it right away, always warm and with hot dishes.
Yes, I also forgot to mention that the taste of the sauce can be easily changed to suit your preferences, you just need to add what you like to it. For example, this could be grated cheese, lemon juice, spices, chopped fried mushrooms, etc.
See the recipe for a very simple and tasty meat casserole with pasta and Bechamel sauce. See another version of pasta casserole with minced meat and mushrooms.
That's all for today. Good luck everyone and have a nice day!
Always have fun cooking!
Smile! 🙂
It’s not for nothing that béchamel is one of the five base sauces of classic French cuisine - it is used not only on its own, but also as a base for a number of other sauces, as an integral part of dishes such as soufflé. In general, whether you like it or not, sooner or later in your life there will come a time when you need to make bechamel sauce. This is where things get interesting. It seems that what could be difficult there? Butter, flour and milk are just the ingredients. But if you don’t know some subtleties, you can easily ruin everything. And be disappointed in the sauce itself. And swear never to try to cook it again. And generally quit this thankless task - cooking...
In short, the consequences can be simply terrible. To avoid this, it’s better to learn how to cook it. And this wonderful article by elaizik will help us with this.
So - béchamel sauce.
There are only three required ingredients - butter, flour, milk.
There are only two required spices - salt and pepper.
The flour is fried in oil (to form a mixture called roux), then the roux is boiled with milk, salt and pepper are added - that's all.
Why do you end up with a paste instead of a creamy sauce or lumps that cause the sauce to not have a smooth, silky texture?
The secret, as always, is technology.
1. For bechamel to have a creamy taste, it is boiled either for no more than 5-7 minutes, or for at least 40-60 minutes.
Moreover, long cooking is a classic approach, short cooking is a modern one.
Why exactly this way and not otherwise?
It has been proven in practice that if you cook flour for more than 10 minutes and less than forty hours, the sauce will have the taste of “raw” flour, that same nasty pasty taste.
During short cooking, this taste does not have time to develop, but during long cooking it disappears.
2. To avoid lumps and ensure a smooth texture, the milk and roux should be at diametrically opposed temperatures.
If the roux is cold (made in advance and stored in the refrigerator), then the milk should be hot.
If the milk is hot (cooked with spices), then the roux should be cooled before mixing.
If the roux is hot and the milk is boiling, the flour is instantly brewed and the appearance of lumps is unlikely to be avoided, in any case, it will be difficult.
If the milk is cold and the roux is cold, then the flour coated with butter will not mix with the milk, but will float in lumps. This sauce will need to be stirred intensively all the time while it is heating up, otherwise some of the lumps of flour will have time to brew without dissolving.
A good option is warm roux and warm milk. The inconvenience is that you need to heat one and cool the other before mixing, which is not always convenient.
Recipe
For the roux, use equal amounts of butter and flour.
For liquid bechamel sauce, take a ratio of 120-180 grams of roux per liter of milk,
for thick, used in soufflé - 300 grams of roux per liter of milk.
However, the simplest and most memorable recipe is: 10 grams of butter - 10 grams of flour - 100 ml of milk.
In addition to the classic sauce, there is a completely full-fledged, more spiced version.
Classic bechamel (for 500 ml milk)
It is best cooked in a single-handle, thick-bottomed, non-stick pan.
You cannot use uncoated aluminum pans - the cream in them will turn grey.
1. Melt 50 grams of butter over very low heat. Under no circumstances should the oil start to fry! If it is very cold, you need to cut it into small cubes, otherwise some of the butter will start to burn before all the butter melts.
Remember - we are making white sauce, the oil should not change color!
2. Pour 50 grams of flour into the butter and thoroughly rub the mixture with a spatula. Stirring and rubbing, keep it on the fire until the flour “boils” and rises like a “cap”, and foam appears around.
Lumps of flour - if there are any - should not bother you at this stage.
3. Measure out 500 ml of milk. Remove the saucepan from the heat and gradually, in small portions - and slowly! - we will add COLD milk, whisking and stirring the sauce all the time. We will spend 100 - 150 ml of milk on this.
When the sauce becomes homogeneous, add the remaining milk, return the saucepan to the heat, stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium heat, and simmer for 5-7 minutes (maximum), from the moment it boils.
4. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground white pepper. Transfer to a dry container.
5. Grease a piece of cling film with butter and press firmly to the surface of the sauce.
If we want to cool it, put it in a container with ice water and then cool it, like any custard.
Cold sauce stays in the refrigerator for 2-3 days without compromising quality and taste.
Bechamel with spices (for 500 ml milk)
1. Prepare the roux (see above, proportions unchanged), then transfer it to a clean bowl and leave to cool completely. You can use a frying pan to make the roux.
2. Prepare a set of spices:
onion (ideally shallot)
2 cloves
1 bay leaf
a piece of nutmeg
a few white peppercorns
Crush everything coarsely and place in a spice trap (preferably).
If there is no trap, then no.
3. Pour 550 ml of milk into a saucepan, add spices and cook for 15 minutes.
4. Strain the milk through a fine sieve, return it to a clean saucepan (if the milk has boiled down too much, add up to 500 ml), heat the milk almost to a boil (there is already a slight steam, but there are no bubbles yet), remove from the heat.
5.Add COLD roux to the milk. And all at once! Stir the milk with a whisk until all the roux is dispersed and the sauce becomes homogeneous.
Bugs and fixes
- it still turned out to be lumps.
Rub the sauce through a fine sieve or blend in a blender.
- the sauce is too thick.
Add milk, stir and heat through.
- the sauce is too thin.
Or cook longer - now 40-60 minutes
or add a small amount of butter, ground with flour (flour: butter 1:1), to the sauce, boil the sauce for a couple of minutes after boiling.
What sauce should I make?
If bechamel is used as a component of another dish or as a binding additive - and unless otherwise specified in the recipe -
then classic bechamel is used.
If you love spices and use bechamel as a sauce that gives a neutral-tasting dish an additional flavor, cook bechamel with spices.
Béchamel sauce is a white sauce originally from France, the royal kitchen of Louis XIV, and has rightfully won one of the first steps in European cuisine. Based on it, a hermetically processed mixture of flour, fat and milk, cooks prepare various sauces.
Béchamel sauce can be served on its own with duck breasts, schnitzel, Flemish stew, roast beef, roast pork, fish dishes, lasagna, julienne, macaroni, spaghetti and pasta.
Today we will cook:
Classic béchamel sauce
We need:
- 0.5 l milk
- 2 tbsp. wheat flour
- 60-70 g butter
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp nutmeg
Preparation:
1.Pour the milk into a saucepan and heat it well, without bringing it to a boil.
2. Melt the butter in a frying pan over low heat.
3. Add flour to the butter and mix quickly to avoid lumps.
When the flour turns pink, add milk in small portions and stir vigorously.
Season the last portion of milk with salt, pepper and nutmeg, and mix with the rest of the mixture. Remove from heat when the sauce reaches the consistency we need (thinner or thicker).
Bechamel sauce with cheese
We need:
- 300 ml milk
- 150 g cheese
- 20 g butter
- 15 g wheat flour
- 1 piece onion, small
- 1 piece bay leaf
- 0.5 tsp nutmeg
- salt, pepper to taste
Preparation:
1. Peel the onion and place it in a saucepan, put a bay leaf here, pour milk and put it on the fire. When the milk boils, you need to remove it from the heat and let it brew for 20 minutes.
2. Grate the cheese.
3. After time has passed, filter the milk.
4. Heat the frying pan and melt the butter, add flour, and stir vigorously. When the flour changes color, gradually add milk, stirring all the time. After the mixture thickens, add salt, pepper, nutmeg and grated cheese, mix and remove from heat.
Bechamel sauce with fried mushrooms
We need:
- 1 onion
- 500 ml milk
- 1 bay leaf
- 25 g flour
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 12 peppercorns
- 1 clove bud
- 1/2 tsp. white pepper
- 1 sprig of parsley
- salt to taste
- 200 g champignon mushrooms
Preparation:
1.Chop the onion into small cubes.
2. Put the milk on the fire and add: bay leaf, peppercorns, cloves, white pepper, salt, parsley, nutmeg and onion. Boil the milk and leave it to steep for 20 minutes, and then strain it
3. Do not wash the champignons, but wipe them with a paper towel so that the mushrooms do not absorb liquid. Cut the mushrooms into slices and fry in a frying pan in oil.
4. Melt the butter, mix with flour, do it quickly so that there are no lumps. After the flour begins to change color, gradually add milk, in parts. Boil over low heat until thickened. At the end, add the fried champignons and stir.
Video recipe: How to make bechamel sauce
Béchamel sauce or white sauce is perhaps one of the most famous French sauces. It perfectly performs all the functions of the sauce: improves the taste and appearance of the dish, increases its juiciness and nutritional value. Béchamel is one of the five main sauces of classic French cuisine. It goes well with almost all hot dishes of meat, poultry, fish, eggs and vegetables.
The basic recipe for bechamel sauce is simple, like everything ingenious: fry equal amounts of butter and flour, pour in hot milk. It might seem like nothing special, but you can tell a lot about this sauce.
As is often the case with French recipes, the roots of béchamel sauce come from 
antiquity. Even at the beginning of our era, cooks thickened sauces with wheat flour and added honey and many herbs and spices. The recipe for floury white sauce has been preserved in the cuisines of France, Italy, Greece and some other countries.
There is still debate about who invented bechamel and when. According to the official version, the sauce is named after Louis de Bechamel, Marquis de Nointel (1630-1703), the famous financier of the 17th century and manager in the kitchen of Louis XIV. According to legend, the Marquis added cream to the veal veloute sauce in an attempt to come up with a worthy accompaniment for dried cod. However, there is no evidence that he was a cook or gourmet and experimented with dishes. Moreover, the bechamel sauce was 
known long before his birth. Perhaps the creator of the sauce was his contemporary - Pierre de la Varenne, chef of Louis XIV. As a sign of gratitude for something, he named his creation after Louis de Béchamel.
Another version claims that béchamel sauce appeared in France thanks to Catherine de Medici (1519-1589), the wife of Henry II. In 1533, she came to France from her native Italy with her chefs and pasta makers. This event enriched the palace cuisine of France with traditional Italian dishes, including bechamel sauce. This version is supported by the fact that in Italian a white sauce made from flour, butter and milk with Parmesan, white pepper and nutmeg is called balsamella, Besciamella. In Italy, lasagna, cannelloni, and vegetable gratins have been prepared with it since ancient times.
Be that as it may, the dawn of the popularity of bechamel sauce came in the 17th century, when 
Numerous experimenters decorated it with wines, vegetables, bacon, spices, chicken and partridge broths, strained it several times and steamed it in the oven. The unification of the recipe occurred in the 18th century, during the reign of Antonin Karem in the royal kitchen. It was he who removed everything unnecessary and created a classic recipe for a rich white sauce, which, in addition to the butter-flour mixture, included cream and yolks. His follower Auguste Escoffier removed eggs from the recipe, but used meat, which was closer to veloute sauce.
Bechamel is classified as a basic white sauce, which means that it can be used to make many different sauces, such as:
. Mornay - bechamel with the addition of grated cheese, usually Parmesan and Gruyère, but emmental and cheddar can also be added. Escoffier recommends adding fish stock to the mornay. Mornay is served with seafood and vegetables. It makes a Hot Brown Sandwich (an open sandwich with turkey and bacon, topped with gravy).
. Nantua - bechamel with cream and crab butter. Served with seafood.
. Soubise - bechamel with the addition of onion puree. Served with fish, meat, poultry, vegetables.
Bechamel sauce recipes
Béchamel by Auguste Escoffier
Auguste Escoffier - king of chefs and cook of kings, creator of the "Culinary Guide" - 
a veritable bible of French cooking at the end of the 19th century. All his recipes are designed for restaurant cuisine, so don’t be surprised by the number of ingredients and complexity of execution. The result will be worthy of a royal table.
Ingredients (for 5 liters of sauce):
650 g flour gravy (350 g sifted flour, fried in 300 g butter),
5 liters of boiled milk,
300g lean veal, stewed in butter with 2 thinly sliced onions, a sprig of thyme, a pinch of pepper, a little nutmeg and 25g salt.
Preparation:
Mix flour gravy with hot milk, bring to a boil, stirring. Add diced stewed veal. Boil for an hour, strain through a cloth. To store, cover the surface of the sauce with a thin layer of melted butter. 
Quick method: Add meat, onion, thyme, pepper and nutmeg to boiling milk, cover with a lid and place near the fire for 10 minutes. Then mix this milk with flour gravy, bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Escoffier also explains how you can make a creamy sauce from béchamel sauce: add a little cream, put on high heat and reduce by a quarter, stirring constantly. Strain, add more fresh heavy cream and lemon juice.
The authors of “The Book on Tasty and Healthy Food” take a much simpler approach to preparing the famous French sauce. True, there it is called simply - white sauce for boiled rabbit, veal, lamb and chicken.
White sauce 
Ingredients:
1 tbsp. flour,
2 tbsp. butter,
1.5 cups broth,
1 yolk.
Preparation:
Lightly fry the flour with the same amount of butter, dilute with the strained broth obtained from cooking the meat, and cook over low heat for 5-10 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat, add the yolk mixed with a small amount of sauce, add salt and the remaining butter to taste, stir.
For meatballs, cutlets, liver and fried game, “The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food” recommends preparing another sauce, also similar to bechamel - sour cream.
Sour cream sauce
Ingredients:
1 tbsp. flour,
1 tbsp. oils,
0.5 cups sour cream,
1 glass of meat broth.
Preparation:
Fry the flour in oil, dilute with broth or vegetable broth, add sour cream and cook over low heat for 5-10 minutes. Add salt to taste. You can diversify the sour cream sauce with fried onions added at the end of cooking.
In modern cookbooks, bechamel usually appears as a mixture of these two sauces - white and sour cream.
Modern bechamel 
Ingredients:
2 cups milk (can be replaced with 1.5 cups meat or fish broth and 0.5 cup sour cream),
3 tbsp. butter,
3 tbsp. flour,
salt, allspice, nutmeg to taste.
Preparation:
Fry the sifted flour in heated butter until creamy and dilute it with hot milk or broth, stirring thoroughly. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 15-20 minutes until the sauce thickens. Season bechamel cooked with broth with sour cream. Add salt and spices to the finished sauce, boil and strain.
Based on this sauce you can prepare French sauce. For this you will need champignons and even more butter. Salt the finely chopped mushrooms and fry in oil until the liquid evaporates. Pour in the bechamel sauce, stir and bring to a boil.
How can you use all this splendor? We offer several original recipes with bechamel sauce:
Recipes with bechamel sauce 
Croque Monsieur and Croque Madame
Behind these extravagant names are French hot ham and egg sandwiches. The preparation of the dish is very simple, but these are not banal sandwiches, but real French cuisine.
Croque-monsieur: brush pieces of bread with sauce, place ham and cheese between them, bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes.
Croque Madame: Same thing, but top with a fried egg.
Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower,
50 g flour,
50 g butter,
500 ml milk,
1 egg,
salt, spices to taste.
Preparation:
Steam the cabbage whole, cool, and separate into inflorescences. Melt a little, fry the flour, pour in hot milk, stir until smooth and boil for a few minutes. Add beaten egg, salt and spices. Grease a baking dish with butter, pour in a little sauce, lay out a layer of cabbage, and pour in the remaining sauce. Bake for 35-40 minutes at 200ºС. When the top begins to yellow, cover the pan with a lid or foil. Cool the finished dish and turn it over onto a plate. It will keep its shape.
Ingredients:
1 kg eggplants,
1 kg potatoes,
100 g hard cheese,
1 kg mixed minced meat,
300 g tomatoes,
100 ml white wine,
2 onions,
100 ml olive oil,
2 cloves of garlic,
200-300 ml bechamel sauce,
cinnamon, cloves, parsley, pepper, salt - to taste.
Preparation:
Cut the eggplants and potatoes into slices and fry until golden brown. (To make the dish lighter, you can bake eggplants and potatoes.) Fry the minced meat along with finely chopped onion, pour in wine, add salt, spices and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add crushed garlic, chopped tomatoes and simmer until the sauce thickens.
Assembling the moussaka: place a layer of potatoes in a greased form, add salt, sprinkle with cheese and herbs. Next is a layer of minced meat and a layer of eggplant. Sprinkle the remaining cheese and herbs on top, pour over the bechamel sauce. Bake the moussaka for 20-25 minutes at 200ºC. Cut and serve the dish slightly cooled.
How did it happen that in Russia bechamel is confused with its very distant relative - mayonnaise. Bechamel and mayonnaise are the oldest sauces in world cooking. They have completely different compositions and different areas of application, despite their similar appearance and the same goals: soften the consistency, add fat and juiciness to the dish. In the cuisine of France and Italy, the zones of influence of these sauces are clearly divided: bechamel is used in hot dishes, and mayonnaise in cold dishes. Unfortunately, bechamel is rarely found on the tables of modern Russians, completely replaced by mayonnaise. This is a grave mistake. In fact, mayonnaise is a cold sauce that is only suitable for salads. Bake, stew and fry in mayonnaise, or add it to hot soup - this is not only bad form, but also harmful to health.
If you love French meat, bake potatoes with mayonnaise, or stew fish and rabbit in mayonnaise, try changing your habits a little and making a sauce specially designed for this purpose - bechamel. It is ideal for hot dishes: it does not break down into components and gently envelops every piece. As for taste, bechamel sauce, unlike mayonnaise, does not have a pronounced chemical taste and allows for various options: it can be made creamy, hot, sour, spicy and even sweet. And all this is made from simple natural ingredients, without emulsifiers or dyes.
Happy experimenting and bon appetit!
