Bechamel Sauce
Bechamel sauce is one of the 5 basic sauces described by August Escoffier in his epochal standard work Guide Culinaire at the beginning of the 20th century.
The sauce is certainly best known as the main ingredient in lasagne. It also seems that béchamel sauce was originally invented in Italy and then made its way to France with the marriage of Catherine de Medici and her court chefs.
Basically, 2 factors are decisive for a perfect béchamel:
Firstly, the milk has to be cold so that a perfect connection with the Roux occurs. And secondly, you have to stir long enough for the sauce to become creamy and lose the floury taste.
Ingredients
– 100g butter
– 100 g flour
– 1L milk (cold)
salt
Refining
As a basic sauce, the béchamel sauce tastes rather neutral and adds more volume than taste. Nutmeg is added for use in a lasagna, if you like a gentle bitter note you can cook a bay leaf and remove it at the end.
CULINAMUS
For our Culinamus Bechamel we use the base recipe as described.
Vorbereitung
5 minutes
Prepare ingredients
Cooking
15 minutes
– Heat the butter until it is liquid. It shouldn’t take on any color.
– Add the flour and sauté until the roux is light brown.
Caution: stir constantly and be careful that the mass does not become too dark. A dark burn-in is bitter and cannot be reused.
– Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the cold milk 3 times with a whisk until there are no lumps.
– Add salt and optional spices.
– Return to the stovetop (medium heat) and cook and stir for 10 – 15 minutes. Keep an eye out as the sauce burns very easily.
– After about 5 minutes, the bechamel sauce will begin to thicken. Continue cooking for a few more minutes so that the flour taste disappears completely.
and next?
Basic ingredient for lasagne, but can also be used for Schinkenfleckerl or to gratinate fish and vegetables.
CULINAMUS!
