Béchamel Sauce

Let me tell you about Bechamel Sauce, and why it behaves the way it does.

You start with butter and flour cooked together — that paste is called a roux. Cook it gently, stirring, until the raw smell is gone and a faint nutty smell takes its place. The colour stays pale; don't let it drift toward brown. Then you pour in the milk, slowly, whisking. Watch the pan: the sauce goes from thin and watery to something that clings to the whisk, and that's your sign it's coming together.

Choose your Bechamel Sauce by eye, not by a recipe title. It must be smooth, pale ivory, without a single lump, without a raw-flour smell. If it still smells raw and floury, give the roux more time on the heat before the milk goes in. A good Bechamel Sauce coats the back of a spoon and holds a trail when you draw a line through it.

Some people say Bechamel Sauce is always pourable, flowing off the spoon in a ribbon. No! Bechamel Sauce comes in thin, medium and thick, depending on what you're making — a soufflé base or croquettes need it thick, almost a paste. The mistake is reaching blindly for more flour the moment it looks thin, before you've even checked the spoon. Dip it, draw your line: if the trail holds, leave it alone. Too much flour and the sauce turns heavy and gluey, losing that silky feel.

With 147 kcal per 100g, this is a sauce you use with respect, not by the ladleful.