Now that I've had some time to come up for air, time for another basic: bechamel sauce. There are only three ingredients to it: whole milk, butter, and flour. If you've got a kitchen scale (which, if you don't have one by now, get one, please), this makes things very easy, as you're just converting numbers up and down to get the end result of what you need.
Bechamel starts with a fat and flour roux. The classic roux is made with clarified butter, but since butter is roughly 20% water, it makes the numbers harder to calculate. Instead, I'm using oil as my fat for the roux. If you want to use whole, butter, increase the butter by 20% to get a close approximation to how much butter you need.
3 parts fat
2 parts flour
all by weight
The thickening ratio is 10 parts liquid to 1 part roux.
Since water and milk weigh roughly the same (it's close enough for this application), we'll run the numbers backwards to see how much butter and flour we need. If we want to end up with 2 cups of bechamel sauce, we need roughly 2 cups of milk, which weighs 1 pound, or 16 ounces. In that case, we need 1.6 ounces of roux. Doing some quick math with some rounding, that means we need about an ounce of oil and 0.6 ounces of flour. There is a simpler ratio to use for butter, and I'll show that one at the end.
You'll need a whisk and a medium saucepan to make this. That's it.
And thus we begin. Put the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Once the oil begins to ripple, dump in the flour all at once, and whisk like mad. It will become lumpy, the bottom of the pan will dry out, and you'll swear you're going to burn everything. Do not fret, once the fat and oil begin to cook, it will liquify again. Promise. The question then becomes how long to cook this? My standard answer is until it no longer smells like raw flour, and there are no lumps. It should take about 5 minutes or so. The key is to get very little color: you want to end up with what is commonly called a "blonde roux." If it's starting to brown, get it off the heat asap. The other key is to keep stirring it the entire time to help prevent the roux from browning.
Now comes time to add the milk. If you've made the roux ahead of time and you've kept it in the fridge, you will need to either warm up the milk or the roux. This leads to another key in making bechamel. EITHER THE ROUX OR THE MILK MUST BE HOT, BUT NOT BOTH. Having both hot will result in lumps. I cannot stress this enough.
Assuming you're still with us with the roux cooking away, it's time to slowly pour in the milk. Keep whisking the entire time you're adding the milk. You may notice some lumps, but they should cook out if you're whisking enough. Lower the heat to medium low, and continue stirring. You do not want to feel anything sticking to the bottom of the pot. If you do, you are scorching your sauce, which means your heat is too high. When cooking with milk, low and slow is good. Once it comes to a bare simmer, the flour in the roux should have done it's work and thickened the sauce. Kill the heat, and you're done. That's it. Really.
Some refinements you can make are to reduce the sauce if you want it thicker. Just keep the heat pretty low, barely simmering, and stir it often to prevent scorching. When you've got it to the thickness you want, you can add lots of things to it. Add grated cheese (off the heat please), and you've got cheese sauce. Add some sauteed mushrooms, and you've got a cream of mushroom sauce that knocks the pants off of anything that could come out of a can. Another thing to keep in mind is that sauces (in most cases) should be aggressively seasoned. Not salty, but just to the point below where you would think it's salty. I also like adding a grate of nutmeg to it if I'm going to use it to make lasagna.
I told you there is a very easy ratio to remember if you want to make your bechamel with butter. Here it is.
1 Tablespoon flour
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Cup whole milk
That is likely easier to remember, and more practical for the home cook.
Bechamel starts with a fat and flour roux. The classic roux is made with clarified butter, but since butter is roughly 20% water, it makes the numbers harder to calculate. Instead, I'm using oil as my fat for the roux. If you want to use whole, butter, increase the butter by 20% to get a close approximation to how much butter you need.
3 parts fat
2 parts flour
all by weight
The thickening ratio is 10 parts liquid to 1 part roux.
Since water and milk weigh roughly the same (it's close enough for this application), we'll run the numbers backwards to see how much butter and flour we need. If we want to end up with 2 cups of bechamel sauce, we need roughly 2 cups of milk, which weighs 1 pound, or 16 ounces. In that case, we need 1.6 ounces of roux. Doing some quick math with some rounding, that means we need about an ounce of oil and 0.6 ounces of flour. There is a simpler ratio to use for butter, and I'll show that one at the end.
You'll need a whisk and a medium saucepan to make this. That's it.
And thus we begin. Put the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Once the oil begins to ripple, dump in the flour all at once, and whisk like mad. It will become lumpy, the bottom of the pan will dry out, and you'll swear you're going to burn everything. Do not fret, once the fat and oil begin to cook, it will liquify again. Promise. The question then becomes how long to cook this? My standard answer is until it no longer smells like raw flour, and there are no lumps. It should take about 5 minutes or so. The key is to get very little color: you want to end up with what is commonly called a "blonde roux." If it's starting to brown, get it off the heat asap. The other key is to keep stirring it the entire time to help prevent the roux from browning.
Now comes time to add the milk. If you've made the roux ahead of time and you've kept it in the fridge, you will need to either warm up the milk or the roux. This leads to another key in making bechamel. EITHER THE ROUX OR THE MILK MUST BE HOT, BUT NOT BOTH. Having both hot will result in lumps. I cannot stress this enough.
Assuming you're still with us with the roux cooking away, it's time to slowly pour in the milk. Keep whisking the entire time you're adding the milk. You may notice some lumps, but they should cook out if you're whisking enough. Lower the heat to medium low, and continue stirring. You do not want to feel anything sticking to the bottom of the pot. If you do, you are scorching your sauce, which means your heat is too high. When cooking with milk, low and slow is good. Once it comes to a bare simmer, the flour in the roux should have done it's work and thickened the sauce. Kill the heat, and you're done. That's it. Really.
Some refinements you can make are to reduce the sauce if you want it thicker. Just keep the heat pretty low, barely simmering, and stir it often to prevent scorching. When you've got it to the thickness you want, you can add lots of things to it. Add grated cheese (off the heat please), and you've got cheese sauce. Add some sauteed mushrooms, and you've got a cream of mushroom sauce that knocks the pants off of anything that could come out of a can. Another thing to keep in mind is that sauces (in most cases) should be aggressively seasoned. Not salty, but just to the point below where you would think it's salty. I also like adding a grate of nutmeg to it if I'm going to use it to make lasagna.
I told you there is a very easy ratio to remember if you want to make your bechamel with butter. Here it is.
1 Tablespoon flour
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Cup whole milk
That is likely easier to remember, and more practical for the home cook.