22.5 Béchamel and velouté sauces

Béchamel

Béchamel is the simplest mother sauce: milk thickened with a white roux. The sauce goes back to Renaissance Tuscany, where its gluey texture earned it the name salsa colla, "glue sauce". The cooks of Catherine de' Medici brought it to France in 1533. François Pierre La Varenne gave it a new name in Le Cuisinier François in 1651, and the name it carries now honors Louis de Béchamel, who lived from 1630 to 1703 and served Louis XIV as steward. In Italian it is balsamella or besciamella.

It began as a thick veal velouté with heavy cream stirred in, and some chefs still put veal stock in it. Today it is usually scalded milk, heated to just below the boil, thickened with white roux and seasoned. Scald, do not boil: boiled milk can curdle and look broken. Béchamel goes with vegetables, eggs and gratins. It has lost some favor lately for being rich and heavy, but it is still central to classic sauce making.

It is seasoned with an onion piquet: a bay leaf pinned to a piece of onion with whole cloves, used like tacks. Nutmeg is used sparingly, because it can take over. White roux, barely cooked, has the most thickening power of any roux, and since it cooks so briefly, butter in it adds flavor.

To make 4 L (1 gal.):

• Simmer 4 L of milk with the onion piquet for 20 minutes.
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• In another pot make a white roux from 250 g (8 oz) of flour and 250 ml (8 fl oz) of clarified butter.
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• Lift out the piquet and add the hot milk to the roux bit by bit, whisking all the time, then bring it to a boil.
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• Lower to a simmer, season with salt, white pepper and nutmeg, and cook 30 minutes.
• Pass it through a cheesecloth-lined china cap.
• Spoon a little melted butter over the top so no skin forms.

A good béchamel is rich, creamy and perfectly smooth, never grainy. You can taste the onion and clove, but they do not hide the clean taste of milk. It is the color of heavy cream with a deep sheen, thick enough to coat food lightly, and never tastes of roux.

Béchamel can easily turn gluey or too thick. Its coating thickness (nappe) changes if it is reduced too much or too little, left to stand, refrigerated, or given other ingredients. Some additions cause trouble of their own:

• Cheese can separate if the sauce gets too hot, so it usually goes in at the end and is only just melted. Cheese sauce is covered in more detail with dairy. see chapter 14: Cheese in a sauce
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• Mustard, horseradish and lemon are acidic and can curdle the sauce.
• Mushrooms let out water and thin the sauce unless sautéed first.
• Corn is starchy and thickens the sauce further. Crawfish can change its color or overcook. Onions add sweetness. A smoky flavor can easily be too much or too little.

Each small sauce starts from 1 L (1 qt) of béchamel and ends with salt and pepper to taste:

The béchamel family and its uses.

Velouté

Velouté is French for "velvety". It is a white stock (veal or chicken) or a fish stock thickened with roux, and one of the five mother sauces Escoffier set out. A good velouté is rich, smooth and free of lumps. Made from chicken or fish stock, it tastes of chicken or fish; from veal stock, its flavor is more neutral. It is ivory with a deep sheen and clings to food without tasting of roux.

To make 4 L (1 gal.):

• Heat 250 ml (8 fl oz) of clarified butter in a heavy pan, add 250 g (8 oz) of flour and cook a blond roux.
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• Whisk in 4.7 L (5 qt) of stock a little at a time, bring to a boil, then simmer and reduce to 4 L, about 30 minutes.
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• Season or not, depending on the stock and the use.
• Pass it through a cheesecloth-lined china cap, and spoon melted butter over the top if it must wait.

Veal and chicken velouté are mostly turned into one of two in-between sauces, which then head families of their own:

• Allemande: veal or chicken velouté with a liaison of egg yolk and cream, plus lemon juice. Which stock you use depends on the dish it will go with.
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• Suprême: chicken velouté with cream.
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To make 4 L of allemande:

• Bring 4 L of velouté to a simmer.
• In a stainless steel bowl whip 8 yolks with 675 ml (24 fl oz) of heavy cream.
• Whisk about a third of the hot velouté into the bowl to temper it, then whisk the warmed mixture into the rest of the sauce.
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• Reheat without boiling, add 30 ml (1 fl oz) of lemon juice, season, and strain.

To make 4 L of suprême:

• Simmer 4 L of chicken velouté with 225 g (8 oz) of mushroom trimmings until it loses a quarter of its volume.
• Whisk in 1 L (1 qt) of heavy cream.
• Bring back to a simmer, season and strain.

Each small sauce below starts from 1 L (1 qt) of its base and ends with salt and pepper to taste.

The velouté family.

Keeping white sauces safe

Both sauces are milk, stock or egg, and food of animal origin, including milk and eggs, is potentially hazardous. Hold them hot at 60°C (140°F) or above. To cool them, bring them to 20°C (70°F) from 60°C (140°F) within two hours and to 4°C (40°F) within four more, for example by stirring the container in an ice-water bath.