White Sauce
White sauce is a common name (chiefly in the US and Britain) for the classic Béchamel Sauce, one of the "Mother Sauces" of French Cuisine. In French cooking, Béchamel Sauce is rarely used on its own; it is more often used as the base for derivitave sauces or as a binder for gratinées. Béchamel's American cousin, on the other hand, is frequently used as a finished product. White sauce is generally more highly seasoned than is Béchamel, but the procedure for making both is the same.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
- ¼ cup (60 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 cups (480 ml) whole milk
- ¾ tsp onion salt
- ¼ tsp ground white pepper
- 1 tsp ground mustard seed
- 1 pinch fresh-ground nutmeg
- 1 bay leaf
Ingredients for 10 servings (610 g) · the original recipe
Method
- 1
Make a white roux: melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat until the foam subsides. Add the flour and whisk together, still over the heat, for 2–3 minutes. The flour should lose its raw smell but should not brown.
Stovetop - 2
Add the milk to the roux while whisking quickly but smoothly to create a smooth mixture.
- 3
Add the seasonings and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. Simmer the sauce until it lightly coats the back of a spoon.
Stovetop - 4
Remove the bay leaf, taste and adjust for salt and pepper, and serve.
Recipe from Wikibooks Cookbook, written by Wikibooks contributors. Used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence; the ingredient list and method on this page are taken from that page and edited (its notes, tips and variations are not reproduced), and are available under the same licence. The macros, equipment tags and scaling are Ma Kitchen’s own and are not the source’s figures. Ma Kitchen is not affiliated with or endorsed by Wikibooks Cookbook. Copied on 2026-11-12.
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