What dishes does béchamel sauce go to? Bechamel sauce is the perfect addition to any dish! Memorize the recipe! Cheese sauce

Bechamel is magnificent milk sauce, which will give any dish on your table a unique taste. Have you ever been to France or Italy? Have you ever made pasta? Or maybe a shrimp soufflé? If you are unsure of how to answer these questions, you should definitely read the article!

White sauce "Bechamel" can easily be attributed to European cuisine.

Many believe that the introduction of the Bechamel sauce originated in France. However, this is not quite true. Let's figure out some of the nuances of the "native French" dish.

The popular sauce was invented by a famous marquis at the court of King Bechamel

Like many famous recipes, variations of the Bechamel recipe go back to antiquity. In those days, cooks thickened wheat flour with spices and herbs to a uniform consistency. Similar recipes can still be found in the cuisines of the peoples of the world. Although, to say that these were recipes original sauce Bechamel is not allowed.

Consider three popular versions of the appearance of an unusual dish

According to the first version, the creator of the extraordinary dressing was the Marquis of Bechamel, who was famous for his deep knowledge of art and painting. He devoted most of his time and energy to this hobby. However, not many people know that his true love was the creation of gastronomic mixtures that combined practically incompatible things. Dishes were served on huge plates, decorated with spices and herbs.

During his experiments, Bechamel managed to enter the circle of confidants of Louis XIV, who was famous for his excellent appetite. It was thanks to the king that the marquis managed to create his famous one. According to legend, it consisted of meat juice and onions.

According to another version, Bechamel only improved the gas station that was known before. The recipe rightfully belonged to Pierre Varennes, a skilled chef from France.

The third story claims that the Bechamel dressing did not appear in France at all. His homeland of origin was Italy, from which he was brought by Catherine de Medici. There it has the name "Balsamella".

Today, Bechamel milk sauce is one of the most popular dressings. However, over time, the recipe has undergone changes. Bechamel sauce is known to contain certain ingredients that make it taste unique. In this article, we will look at how to quickly and easily make a successful béchamel sauce at home and how to make a foreign béchamel sauce tastier.

Béchamel sauce cooking basics

So how to do delicious sauce bechamel?

Before cooking the béchamel sauce, it is necessary to reveal all the nuances of cooking this dish.

Each dish has its own cooking secrets, and many chefs hide them carefully. However, if you want to make a real Bechamel, you need to know some basic secrets that will help you prepare exquisite dish and answer the question of how easy it is to cook béchamel sauce.

Rublon is the basis for the Béchamel filling. Experienced chefs have shortened this name to the first letters and now the base is called "Ru". "Ru" is a mixture of high-fat oil with flour from hard varieties wheat, which has a straw color. After that, heavy cream or milk is added to it (the composition may vary depending on the recipe).

Some cooks prefer to add to the base meat broth... This makes the dish richer and more delicious.

One of the most important rules preparation of the dressing "Bechamel" is the exact observance of proportions. Wheat flour and oil should be added in a 1: 1 ratio. Otherwise, you can lose the consistency of the true Bechamel sauce.

In order for it to have a pleasant aroma, seasonings are added to the milk. It must be cold. After that, the milk is heated and infused for half an hour. In order not to filter the sauce, seasonings and herbs are wrapped in cheesecloth and simply boiled with milk. Then the gauze is removed.

Important points are the color and consistency of the resulting dressing. Ideally, it should have a creamy shade and a light texture. The dish should not be dense, it should not be thicker than low-fat sour cream.

Before you start preparing the sauce, it must be said that each housewife cooks differently, so you can meet great amount variations of the famous gravy.

Initially cream sauce bechamel consists of a flour base, which is fried in oil, and a milk-meat liquid. Many housewives sauté flour in butter until they become straw-colored, while others add it only after the flour turns yellowish. Each recipe has its own pitfalls and secrets, however, the unique taste of this component is worth it to prepare.

The classic recipe for making béchamel sauce at home

Before you start preparing the famous sauce, you need to prepare all its ingredients and prepare the dishes. When everything is ready, you can start.

How to make Bechamel gravy-sauce, or recipe the most delicate sauce bechamel for home cooking.

"Bechamel" classic

For the recipe for tender "Béchamel" we need the following products:

• Milk with a fat content of 3.2% - 1 liter;
• oil 75% - 150 g;
• Flour - 1/2 cup;
• Salt other seasonings in a minimum amount.

A step-by-step recipe for French béchamel sauce, which can be easily prepared at home, looks like this:

1. To prepare the dressing, you will need a deep saucepan, preferably enameled, so that the dish does not burn.
2. First of all, we put milk out of the refrigerator. It does not need to be preheated, it is enough that it acquires room temperature... This trick will help you achieve a uniform dish faster than using a cold product.
3. Preheat a saucepan and add a piece of butter to it. Melt it on the stove to a liquid state.
4. Take a dry frying pan and put the flour mixture into it. Fry over low heat until golden brown.
5. Pour milk into the fried flour. It is best to do this slowly to avoid clumping.
6. As the liquid is added, stir the dense mass with a spoon.
7. Add liquid oil to a dense mixture. Mix thoroughly and bring to a thick texture. Season with salt, basil and spices.

Now we know how to make a simple béchamel sauce.

Bechamel sauce for lasagna basic recipe

Perhaps the most popular recipe with Bechamel gravy is lasagna. In order for the dish to turn out the way it was conceived, it is necessary to follow the exact proportions and recipes.

Step by step recipe homemade béchamel sauce, or how to make it quickly and easily white sauce for lasagna.

Bechamel is perfect for lasagna

To prepare the original component you will need:

• flour top grade- 1 faceted glass;
• Butter - 1 pack;
• Cream - 200 ml;
• Salt and seasonings to taste.

1. Pour flour into a frying pan and fry over low heat until it becomes straw-colored.
2. Add oil and stir without ceasing to give the mixture a homogeneous texture. It should acquire a flesh-colored and airy consistency.
3. Gently pour milk into the sauce in a thin stream. In this case, it is necessary to constantly stir the mixture to prevent the formation of lumps of flour. For these purposes, you can use a blender or a whisk.
4. Add a pinch of nutmeg and spices to the mixture.
5. Stir the Béchamel. Without removing the container from the stove, simmer for a few minutes, until the contents acquire a thick texture.
6. Ready-made "Béchamel" is used hot.
7. If it cools, it needs to be reheated, as the chilled food has a thicker consistency.

Bechamel meat sauce recipe

As mentioned earlier, the Bechamel sauce with the addition of rich meat broth has a brighter and refined taste... That is why this recipe is considered one of the most popular among chefs around the world. However, despite the name, the recipe for béchamel sauce is extremely simple. Consider the recipe for bechamel milk sauce, which can be easily prepared at home.

To prepare it, you need to take the following products:

• Butter 75% - 25 g;
• Durum flour - 50 g;
• Vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons;
• Milk not less than 3.2% - 450 ml;
• Meat broth - 450 ml;
• Basil, saffron and other spices.

Preparing a dressing based on meat broth will take no more than 15 minutes, and the taste that your dishes will acquire will become more expressive and delicate.

1. Heat the dishes over low heat and put a small cube of butter in it. As soon as it melts, pour vegetable oil into it.
2. Beat with a whisk in fan-like movements.
3. Add to creamy mass wheat flour and knead with a fork or whisk.
4. Gradually add warm milk, mix.
5. Prepare beef broth. To do this, you can use a concentrate for making broth, or boil it from meat. If you use the second method, after cooking, the liquid must be filtered through a sieve or cheesecloth.
6. Pour hot broth into the resulting milk-cream mixture and mix thoroughly with a spoon.
7. Add seasonings to the resulting Bechamel sauce.

Traditional

According to the third version of the origin, "Bechamel" appeared in Italy and Pellegrino Artuzi, the famous Italian chef, was named its progenitor. It belongs to him traditional recipe sauce. It differs slightly from the classical idea of ​​the dish, however, in terms of taste, it is in no way inferior to analogs. According to official figures, this recipe is at least 150 years old.

To prepare it, we need the following ingredients:

• Butter - 60 g;
• Wheat flour - 50 g;
• Fat milk - 500 ml;
• Yolk from one chicken egg;
• Parmesan cheese - 50 g;
• Basil, salt.

1. For the traditional version of the dish, it is better to use a saucepan or teflon-coated dishes. Spread into it and melt.
2. Add wheat flour to the fat mixture and stir.
3. Pour cold milk into the mixture and beat with a whisk. The mixture should have a golden hue.
4. Season with spices to taste.
5. Continue cooking the sauce for a couple of minutes. Stir the mixture periodically to prevent it from burning.
6. Gently mix the pre-separated chicken yolk into the sauce.
7. Grate Parmesan on a coarse grater and add to the mixture. Mix gently with a wooden spoon.

The finished sauce should have a viscous texture with a creamy cheese flavor.

In the microwave

Modern inventions have long come to the aid of today's housewives. Almost all of them have a microwave oven in their kitchens, which has become indispensable in everyday life. Not every one of us knows that it is with its help that you can make Bechamel sauce with a minimum of time and effort. Unlike the classic recipe, this option will only take you 5 minutes.

To prepare the Bechamel gravy in microwave oven you will need the following components:

• Milk with a fat content of 3.2% - 250 ml;
• Butter - 20 g;
• Wheat flour - 2 tablespoons;
• Salt and seasonings to taste.

1. Put the creamy product in a glass container and send it to warm up for literally 30 seconds. This time should be enough for it to melt.
2. Add flour and stir gently. The presence of lumps in the finished dish will depend on how well you mix the resulting product.
3. Pour milk into a separate container and add spices to it. We put in the microwave for 2 minutes.
4. Pour the creamy mixture with hot spiced milk and stir. If the texture is too runny, you can microwave it for 30 seconds.

For fish dishes

The Bechamel variation for dishes has a slightly different composition. Such differences are due to the fact that fish is a special product, whose taste needs only to be emphasized, but not interrupted by another component.

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Béchamel sauce is perfect as a dressing for fish

For cooking fish sauce Bechamel needs the following products:

• Wheat flour - 50 grams;
• Creamy product - 1/3 of the package;
• Full-fat milk or cream - 1 liter;
• Sugar - 10 grams;
• Nutmeg - 1⁄2 teaspoon

1. Spread the spread in a saucepan and melt it over low heat.
2. Without turning off the heat, add flour to the creamy mixture and knead thoroughly. The mass should acquire a golden hue. As soon as this has happened, the fire is turned off.
3. Pour warm milk in a thin stream.
4. Put the sauce on the fire and cook until thick. During this time, it should acquire a uniform texture.
5. Add sugar, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix.
6. Add the remaining oil to the gravy and bring the mixture to a boil.
7. Serve hot.

In spanish

The Spanish Bechamel white sauce has some differences from the classic recipe.

Spanish Bechamel sauce

To prepare it, you need to take the following products:

• Heavy cream - 300 ml;
• Oil - 30 grams;
• Wheat flour - 3 tablespoons;
• Several feathers of green onions;
• Nutmeg - 0.5 teaspoon
• Saffron and basil to taste.

1. Fry wheat flour in a dry frying pan until golden brown.
2. Add butter. As it melts, it is necessary to knead the mixture thoroughly so that no lumps form.
3. Gradually pour the cream into the bowl.
4. Add spices. Mix.
5. Pour into the prepared Bechamel sauce green onions and boil for another 5 minutes.
6. Serve hot with flour dishes, meat and fish.

With mushrooms and cheese

Pouring "Bechamel" with the addition of mushrooms and cheese is a modification famous recipe, which was invented by modern chefs. Mushroom "Bechamel" has a thicker texture and an unusual taste that mushrooms give it.

Bechamel sauce with mushrooms and cheese

To prepare it, you need to take:

• Heavy cream - 350 ml;
• Spread - 30 grams;
• Wheat flour - 30 grams;
• Fresh mushrooms, preferably champignons - 150 grams;
• Hard cheese - 100 grams;
• Onions - 1 head;
• Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Put butter and flour in a dry frying pan. Saute over low heat until brown color appears.
2. Add to the mixture milk product and mix thoroughly. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes.
3. In a separate frying pan, fry the mushrooms pre-diced. Add to them onion... Cooking until a crispy crust appears on the mushrooms.
4. Add the onion-mushroom mixture to the finished mass and mix. Cook for 1-2 minutes, until the dressing acquires a uniform consistency.
5. Pour finely chopped Parmesan cheese into the prepared mixture and stir.

With onions and garlic

This sauce with onions and garlic is perfect as a dressing for spaghetti and poultry dishes.

The original Bechamel sauce is prepared with the addition of nutmeg.

To prepare unusual variation famous dish you need to take the following products:

• Cream 33% - 200 ml;
• Butter - 35 g;
• Flour of the highest grade - 35 g;
• Nutmeg - a small handful;
• Onions - 1 head;
• Garlic - a couple of prongs;
• Ground pepper and salt.

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Add 35 g flour and stir. Within 5-6 minutes the mixture will acquire its characteristic creamy color.
3. Add cream.
4. Cut onions and garlic into small cubes. The smaller it turns out, the better. Many housewives use a meat grinder for these purposes. Fry the garlic-onion mixture with the addition of a minimum amount of sunflower oil. Add to the total mass.
5. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix. The spicy white sauce is served hot.

With tomatoes

Tomato notes will give the dressing a unique taste. This sauce is perfect with spaghetti, lasagne and even kebabs.

"Bechamel" with tomato puree

To cook Bechamel with tomatoes you need to take:

• 50 grams of butter 82%;
• Sunflower oil - 30 ml;
• Dairy product 3.2% - 750 ml;
• Tomato paste or chopped tomatoes -30 g.
• Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Place the spread in a small bucket. Melt it over low heat. Pour in sunflower oil and mix.
2. Pour flour into the oil mixture. Stir with a wooden spatula.
3. Pour in milk carefully and bring the mixture to a boil. Stir the sauce constantly as the mixture boils.
4. Add spices to taste and cook for 15 minutes.
5. Take a little of the finished product and put it in a small container. Add tomato puree to it. Stir and beat with a blender.
6. Transfer the mixture to the mass. Stir until smooth.

Cooking rules perfect sauce"Bechamel"

In order for you to get exactly "Béchamel", and not just an oil mixture, you must follow some rules.

The correct cookware must be used to prepare the perfect dressing. Better if it is a stewpan or a frying pan with a Teflon coating. This will ensure an even temperature distribution and prevent the sauce from burning.

The hot butter mixture is best mixed with cold milk or cream. The components must be at different temperatures. Otherwise, the sauce will split.

It is worth remembering that the dressing has a certain consistency. The texture of the product should be such that the dressing drips evenly from the spoon.

For the preparation of this culinary product, only milk is used. Many chefs experiment with cream, however, in this case it is better to dilute them with meat broth. Otherwise, the cream may curdle, forming an unpleasant curdled texture.

Serving the Bechamel sauce is just as important as all of its ingredients. It should be served only hot, because as it cools, it becomes covered with a thick film. Therefore, if it has cooled down, it must be warmed up.

Don't add too much seasoning. It is worth remembering that a French creation is primarily a milk sauce, so you can set off its taste with seasonings, but you should not interrupt it.

Why serve Bechamel sauce?

Bechamel goes well with meat dishes and fish. In addition, lasagna goes well with it. Pasta with Bechamel sauce has become a classic in the provinces of France.

How to improve the taste of Bechamel sauce?

When preparing a new dish, you need not only to be able to get a similar consistency, it is important to preserve taste qualities original recipe.

In order to improve the taste of the finished dish, you need to take into account some points.

1. For flavoring, you can use milk and cream at the same time. This combination will give the sauce extra nutritional value and will greatly improve the taste.
2. In order to enhance the taste of the classic white sauce, it is necessary to use seasonings. Saffron, basil, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper are perfectly combined with Béchamel sauce.
3. In order for Bechamel to acquire a spicy flavor, it is necessary to fill the butter mixture with pre-prepared milk with spices. To prepare it, you need to take a large onion, bay leaf and several carnation umbrellas. The onion is peeled and seasoning is placed in the middle. Add bay leaves. The milk is boiled along with the prepared ingredients. Before mixing with the flour mixture, filter the milk through cheesecloth.
4. In many Italian recipes you can find a recipe in which chicken eggs are present. Adding this ingredient will make the Bechamel thicker and more viscous. This sauce is perfect as a sauce for pizza and lasagna.

Nutritional value of a unique dish

The calorie content of the finished dish may differ and vary depending on the ingredients that make up it. Typically, the average is 90 kcal per 100 g of finished dressing. However, if you use a spread instead of butter, and replace the meat broth with vegetable broth, the calorie content will significantly decrease.

Useful properties of the famous dressing

Not many people know that butter and flour based gravy can easily be attributed to dietary nutrition... The well-known dish contains only natural ingredients that have a beneficial effect on the human body.

Continuous use of the sauce will improve the condition of the skin and avoid dryness. Vitamins A, D and E, which are part of the components of the sauce, normalize the hormonal background and the immune status of a person. The consumption of 100 g of sauce per day replenishes the reserves of milk protein and calcium in the body. In addition, the sauce normalizes the nervous system and prevents the development of depression.

The culinary art is largely dependent on the skill of the chef. No wonder they say: "The same torment, but not the same hands." Applied to meat dishes it is safe to say that someone manages to cook a piece called "steak" that is as hard as a sole from the same meat, while someone else's meat turns out to be tender and uniquely tasty. This can be achieved with the help of, for example, béchamel sauce, the recipe for which is not too complicated even for a novice housewife.

Anyone who wonders how to make béchamel sauce should know that this seasoning contains only three ingredients: milk (cream), flour and butter. According to legend, this sauce was created by none other than the Marquis de Bechamel, the majordomo of King Louis XIV. It is doubtful that he himself stood at the stove with a ladle. Surely this seasoning was invented by his chef, but Monsieur Béchamel is remembered with a kind word, seasoning another meat dish with the resulting marinade.

Making béchamel sauce: a basic recipe

Start mastering French cuisine it is possible with different seasonings, but the classic bechamel sauce, the recipe of which can have several variations, is prepared first. It can be liquid, like a gravy, it can have a medium thickness to season soup, but a thick consistency is used for roasting fish, meat, vegetables, seasoning lasagna, julienne or spaghetti. Density most often depends on the amount of flour. Gravy can acquire new flavors by adding grated horseradish root, cheese, as well as ketchup, laurel, nutmeg, black pepper, even fried onions.

How to cook basic bechamel?

Making béchamel sauce is easy!

Seasoning Ingredients:

• 300 ml of milk;
• 100 g fresh butter;
• 4 tbsp. tablespoons of flour (only wheat);
• nutmeg - on the tip of a knife;
• salt, pepper - to taste.

Cooking time - 10-15 minutes.

Step by step recipe for this delicious seasoning well known. You can easily make béchamel sauce at home. You just need to do a few simple steps:

1. Dissolve the butter in a small saucepan over low heat.
2. Add flour to the melted butter, stirring vigorously with a wooden spatula so that there are no lumps.
3. Pour milk into the resulting thick mixture, stirring thoroughly - you know how to do the right thing to achieve the desired thickness.
4. Bechamel milk sauce thickens a lot when it cools, so it is better to leave it hot when it is left in a thinner consistency.
5. While the béchamel sauce is hot, the recipe suggests adding salt, pepper, nutmeg to it, then mix thoroughly and leave to cool on the stove. It is better to use the finished product immediately: after heating the béchamel sauce in the microwave, its taste deteriorates.

To give a special taste to the bechamel sauce in milk, some housewives use a slightly different cooking technology. They do not add flour to the melted butter, but, on the contrary, first fry it in a pan until a pale golden color, and only then add butter to it, and after that - liquid - broth with milk or cream.

How to diversify the taste of a seasoning?

Not every housewife has enough time to try to cook new dishes every day, and there is definitely not enough time for new seasonings. Therefore, the usual bechamel sauce, cooked in milk, can be varied with all sorts of additives. Someone prefers to add ready-made seasonings, someone combines the base base with ketchup, mayonnaise, there are those who expand the flavor palette by adding mushrooms, vegetables, nuts. But perhaps it will be easier to cook bechamel with cheese.

Due to its light color, this seasoning is now widespread in many cookbooks otherwise called “classic white sauce”. For the cheese option of this dish need two more ingredients - cheese and two chicken eggs medium size. After preparing the main white sauce, without letting it cool, you need to add 100 grams of any hard cheese, and when it melts, carefully add to the composition raw eggs and bring to a boil again. This is how you can make a delicious bechamel sauce at home.

Sometimes you have to change something due to the lack of some components of the recipe. How to make white béchamel sauce without milk at all? Replacing it with kefir or fermented baked milk is not worth it, but sour cream sauce can turn out to be very good. The cooking scheme does not change, just diluted sour cream will replace milk. Garlic lovers cannot ignore it here, but for a piquancy it is better to add fried onions to the recipe of this wonderful white main sauce. It will not leave such a long aftertaste that sometimes causes heartburn.

Where is white sauce used?

Each housewife has her own secret of how to make white sauce, but the range of its use in cooking is quite wide. Lasagna for novice chefs is still difficult to prepare (although mastering a simple recipe for this Italian dish, if desired, will not be difficult), but spaghetti or our native pasta, seasoned with delicious and hearty gravy, can put anyone in a happy mood.

You can speed up the preparation of the white sauce by melting the butter in the microwave. If you cook the béchamel sauce in the microwave, then its taste will in no way yield to the traditional seasoning, and it will save a lot of time. Fish, meat, poultry will not only acquire a special taste of the white sauce, but also become more satisfying, which is especially important in winter. A husband who has returned from the cold or children who have played enough on the street should get a maximum of calories, for this they use not bread (thanks to which all dishes became more satisfying), but dishes with béchamel sauce.

If you start to master the Italian or French cuisine, then you just need to know step by step how to prepare the main white sauce and its derivatives. For simplicity, you can microwave bechamel. If boiled spaghetti (and also better vegetables) pour over the resulting seasoning, then put the made dish in a baking dish and sprinkle with grated cheese and herbs on top, then you will have a wonderful casserole for dinner. The recipe for such a dish for a working woman is a real lifesaver.

If you already know more than one answer to the question of how to make bechamel sauce, you just have to master the bechamel sauce in a slow cooker. The cooking time will be slightly longer, but the richness of the taste will be unique, and the white sauce, the recipe of which does not differ at all from the main one, will delight you with new shades.

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Bechamel sauce... One of the most popular universal sauces, because it can be served with fish, vegetable and meat dishes. It perfectly complements and at the same time unobtrusively emphasizes the taste of any dish, making it even more delicate at the same time!

There are two versions of the origin of the béchamel sauce. According to the first version, this famous sauce was created by a French aristocrat named Louis de Béchamel, who served as a hofmeister at the court of Louis XIV, and according to the second version, this sauce was invented by François de la Varenne, the royal chef and part-time founder haute cuisine at Versailles. However, regardless of which version is the most reliable, bechamel sauce came to us from distant France!

More than three thousand other sauces are prepared on the basis of béchamel sauce! And the bechamel itself is universally served with both ordinary and dietary or even children's dishes. In addition to the fact that this sauce is amazingly tasty, it is also completely harmless - even people with various gastrointestinal diseases can use it without any special fears. And in this sauce, all kinds of products are often baked: cauliflower, chicken ventricles, mussels, etc.

The main ingredients for making béchamel sauce are milk, butter and flour. To cook classic sauce, 40 g of butter is melted over low heat, after which 40 g of flour are gradually poured into it, constantly stirring the future sauce and trying to bring the mass to homogeneity. Next, stirring vigorously the sauce so that no lumps form in it, about 100 ml of milk is poured into it (ideally, with a fat content of 2.5%), and again the mass is brought to homogeneity. And then the remaining 300 ml of milk is poured into the sauce, stirring it thoroughly. The sauce is brought to a boil, not forgetting to stir it periodically, after which it is boiled for five minutes over low heat. The finished sauce is salted to taste, mixed thoroughly and covered with a lid, or immediately served.

Bay leaves, nutmeg, ground pepper and other spices can be added to the béchamel sauce as seasonings. And to give this sauce unique shades of taste, pre-frying the flour will help - the longer it is fried, the more “nutty” taste the sauce will acquire. If you want to make the sauce more tender, you can safely use cream instead of milk.

The ideal béchamel sauce should have a uniform structure, a medium consistency and a pleasant light creamy shade. And this sauce should only be served hot!

Bechamel sauce or white sauce is perhaps one of the most famous French sauces. It perfectly fulfills all the functions of the sauce: it improves the taste and appearance dishes, increases its juiciness and nutritional value... Bechamel is one of the five main sauces in classic French cuisine. It goes well with almost all hot dishes of meat, poultry, fish, eggs and vegetables.

The basic recipe for béchamel sauce is simple, like everything ingenious: fry equal amount butter and flour, pour hot milk. It would seem nothing special, but there is a lot to tell about this sauce.

As is often the case with French recipes, the roots of the béchamel sauce originate from antiquity. At the beginning of our era, culinary experts thickened sauces wheat flour and added honey and many herbs and spices. The recipe for flour white sauce has been preserved in the cuisines of France, Italy, Greece and some other countries.

There is still debate over who invented bechamel and when. According to the official version, the sauce is named after Louis de Bechamel, the Marquis de Nointel (1630-1703), the famous 17th century financier and manager of Louis XIV's kitchen. Legend has it that the Marquis added cream to the veal veloute sauce in an attempt to come up with a decent accompaniment to the dried cod. However, there is no evidence that he was a chef or gourmet and experimented with dishes. Moreover, the béchamel sauce was known long before his birth. Perhaps the creator of the sauce was his contemporary - Pierre de la Varene, the chef of Louis XIV. In gratitude for something, he named his creation after Louis de Bechamel.

Another version claims that the bechamel 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 palatial cuisine of France with traditional Italian dishes, among which was the béchamel sauce. This version is supported by the fact that in italian a white sauce made from flour, butter and milk with parmesan cheese, white pepper and nutmeg is called balsamella (Balsamella, Besciamella). In Italy, lasagne, cannelloni, vegetable gratins have been cooked with it since ancient times.

Anyway, the dawn of the popularity of béchamel 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 took place in the 18th century, during the reign of the royal kitchen by Antonin Karem. It was he who removed all unnecessary and made classic recipe fatty white sauce, which, in addition to the butter-flour mixture, included cream and yolks. His follower Auguste Escoffier removed the eggs from the recipe, but used meat that was closer to the veloute sauce.

Bechamel - classified as a basic white sauce, which means it can be used to make a variety of various sauces, for example such:

... Mornay - bechamel with grated cheese, usually parmesan and gruyere, but emmental and cheddar are possible. Escoffier recommends adding fish broth to the mornay. Morne is served with seafood and vegetables. A Hot Brown sandwich is prepared with it (an open sandwich with turkey and bacon, drizzled with sauce).
... Nantua - bechamel with cream and crab oil... Served with seafood.
... Soubise - bechamel with the addition onion puree... Served with fish, meat, poultry, vegetables.

Bechamel sauce recipes

Bechamel by Auguste Escoffier
Auguste Escoffier - the king of chefs and the chef of kings, the creator of the "Culinary Guide" - the real bible of French cooking of the late 19th century. All of his recipes are designed for restaurant cuisine, so do not be surprised by the amount of ingredients and the complexity of execution. The result will be worthy of the 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
300 g lean veal stewed in oil with 2 thinly chopped onions, a sprig of thyme, a pinch of pepper, a small nutmeg and 25 g salt.

Preparation:
Mix flour sauce with hot milk, bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add the diced veal stew. Simmer for an hour, strain through a cloth. For storage, pour a thin layer of melted butter over the surface of the sauce.
Quick way: Add meat, onion, thyme, pepper and nutmeg to boiling milk, cover and put next to the fire for 10 minutes. Then mix this milk with flour sauce, bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Escoffier also explains how you can get a creamy sauce from béchamel sauce: add a little cream, put on high heat and evaporate by a quarter, stirring constantly. Strain, pour in still fresh heavy cream and lemon juice.

Much easier to prepare the famous French sauce are the authors of the "Book of delicious and healthy food." True, there it is simply called - 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 oil, dilute with strained broth obtained from cooking meat, and cook over low heat for 5-10 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat, add the yolk mixed with a little sauce, add salt and the remaining oil to taste, stir.

The “Book of Tasty and Healthy Food” recommends preparing another sauce, similar to bechamel, sour cream, for cuts, meatballs, liver and fried game.

Sour cream sauce

Ingredients:
1 tbsp flour,
1 tbsp oils,
0.5 cups sour cream
1 glass of meat broth.

Preparation:
Fry flour in oil, dilute with broth or vegetable broth, put sour cream and cook over low heat for 5-10 minutes. Season to taste. You can diversify the sour cream sauce with fried onions added at the end of cooking.

In modern cookbooks, bechamel is usually featured as a mixture of the two sauces - white and sour cream.

Modern bechamel

Ingredients:
2 cups of milk (can be replaced with 1.5 cups of meat or fish broth and 0.5 cups of sour cream),
3 tbsp butter,
3 tbsp flour,
salt, allspice, nutmeg to taste.

Preparation:
Fry the sifted flour in hot 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. Bechamel cooked in broth, season with sour cream. Add salt and spices to the prepared sauce, boil and strain.

Based on this sauce, you can prepare French sauce... This will require mushrooms and even more butter. Salt the finely chopped mushrooms and fry in oil to evaporate the liquid. Pour in the béchamel sauce, stir and bring to a boil.

How can you use all this splendor? We offer several original recipes with béchamel sauce:

Bechamel sauce recipes

Croque Monsieur and Croque Madame
Behind these extravagant names are French hot ham and egg sandwiches. The dish is prepared very simply, but these are not banal sandwiches, but real French cuisine.
Croque monsieur: brush the pieces of bread with sauce, put ham and cheese between them, bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes.
Crock-madam: the same, but put a fried egg on top.

Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower
50 g flour
50 g butter
500 ml of milk
1 egg,
salt, spices to taste.

Preparation:
Boil the cabbage whole and steam, cool, disassemble into inflorescences. Melt a little, fry the flour, pour in the hot milk, stir until smooth and simmer for a few minutes. Add beaten egg, salt and spices. Grease a baking dish butter, pour in a little sauce, lay out a layer of cabbage, cover with the remaining sauce. Bake for 35-40 minutes at 200 ° C. When the top starts to turn yellow, cover the dish with a lid or foil. Cool the finished dish, turn it over onto a plate. It will keep its shape.

Ingredients:
1 kg eggplant
1 kg of potatoes,
100 g of hard cheese
1 kg of mixed minced meat,
300 g of tomatoes,
100 ml of white wine,
2 onions
100 ml olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
200-300 ml of béchamel sauce,
cinnamon, cloves, parsley, pepper, salt - to taste.

Preparation:
Cut eggplants and potatoes into slices and fry until golden crust... (To make the dish lighter, you can bake eggplants and potatoes.) Fry the minced meat with finely chopped onions, pour over with wine, add salt, spices and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add the minced garlic, chopped tomatoes and simmer until the sauce thickens.

Putting the moussaka: put a layer of potatoes in a greased dish, salt, sprinkle with cheese and herbs. Next - layer minced meat and a layer of eggplant. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and herbs on top, top with the béchamel sauce. Bake the moussaka at 200 ° C for 2025 minutes. Slice and serve slightly chilled.

How it happened 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 composition and different areas of application, despite a similar appearance and the same goals: to 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 separated: bechamel is used in hot dishes, and mayonnaise is used in cold dishes. Unfortunately, bechamel is rarely found on the tables of modern Russians, completely superseded by mayonnaise. This is a gross mistake. In fact, mayonnaise is a cold sauce only appropriate for salads. Bake, simmer and fry in mayonnaise, add it to hot soup- this is not only bad form, but also harm to health.

If you like 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 - béchamel. In hot dishes, it is ideal: it does not disintegrate into components, gently envelops every bite. As for taste, bechamel sauce, unlike mayonnaise, does not have a pronounced chemical aftertaste and allows various options: It can be made soft creamy, pungent, sour, spicy and even sweet. And all this from simple natural ingredients, without emulsifiers and dyes.

Happy experiments and bon appetit!