The sauce that keeps on giving! How to make a white sauce and use it as the base of so many delicious recipes...

I love a good white sauce! It really is the base to so many recipes!

Macaroni cheese, cauliflower cheese, a plethora of pies, a hearty lasagne…it has so many uses and learning how to create the perfect white sauce is an invaluable skill for the kitchen! It is originally a French sauce that dates right back to the 17th century. You may also hear it called a ‘béchamel’ - the beauty is that whatever you decide to call it, you can still make it your own!

The constant stirring is the main trick, don’t leave this alone once it’s on the heat! If you do need to answer the door or leave it for even a moment, take it off of the heat.

My Mother and I used to make this all the time and as a child I was head-stirrer (I think it might have been that she was too impatient to stand still for that long!) so making this still brings back such lovely memories of being in the kitchen with her.

The recipe below and that I use in the video was for a cheesy white sauce for lasagne, but you can leave out the cheese, use stock instead of milk or even make it richer by adding cream… you name it!

Ingredients

150g butter

150g plain flour

large pinch of sea salt

large pinch of ground black pepper

1000ml milk

100g grated cheddar cheese

Method

Melt the butter in a medium-size saucepan over a gentle heat.

When melted add in the plain flour and I use a hand whisk to mix together.

Add the salt and pepper and cook on a gentle heat for approximately a minute.

Slowly add the milk, about 200ml at a time and keep stirring with your hand whisk until it's smooth.

Add some more milk and keep repeating this until you have added all the milk.

Add the grated cheese if using, you might need to turn the heat down so keep an eye on it!

White sauce freezes really well so if you have leftover pop it in the freezer for another time!

Do you have any other uses for white sauce? I’d love to hear them!

Love,