Béchamel: One of the Five French Mother Sauces
Béchamel is a smooth white sauce made from a butter-and-flour roux cooked with milk and seasoned with nutmeg. It is one of the classical French mother sauces and the creamy layer in Italian lasagne, Greek moussaka and pastitsio, and many baked dishes.
Béchamel is a white sauce made from a roux of butter and flour cooked together, into which milk (or cream) is gradually stirred until smooth, then seasoned with ground nutmeg. It is one of the classical French mother sauces — a foundational base from which many other sauces are built. **Preparation.** Equal parts butter and flour are cooked into a roux, then milk is whisked in gradually over heat to avoid lumps. A common working ratio is roughly 50g butter, 50g flour, and 500ml milk. Mornay sauce is the best-known derivative, made by stirring grated cheese into béchamel. **History.** A similar roux-based recipe appears in François Pierre de La Varenne's 1651 cookbook Le cuisinier françois; the named version appears in Vincent La Chapelle's 1733 The Modern Cook. The sauce is generally believed to be named after Louis de Béchameil, a 17th-century French financier and steward to King Louis XIV. **Uses.** Béchamel is the creamy layer in Italian Lasagne: The Two-Sauce Layered Bake, Spanish canelones, Greek moussaka and pastitsio (where it is often enriched with egg), and Egyptian macarona bil-bechamel. In lasagne it provides the richness that the meat Ragù alla Bolognese does not — the Italian tradition uses béchamel where American recipes often substitute ricotta. It is best made fresh, as it separates if stored.