"White sauce" redirects here. For the sauce used on fettuccine Alfredo, see
Alfredo sauce. For the condiment associated with American halal street carts, see
halal cart.
The first named béchamel sauce appears in The Modern Cook, written by
Vincent La Chapelle and published in 1733,[4] in which the following recipe for "Turbots (a la Bechameille)" appears:
Take some
Parsley and
Chibbol,[5] and mince them very small, put in a Saucepan a good lump of Butter, with your Parsley and Chibbol, and some minced Shallots, season'd with Salt and Pepper, some Nutmeg, and a dust of Flour: Take a
Turbot boil'd in
Court Bouillon, take it off by pieces and put it into your Stew-pan: put in a little Cream, Milk, or a little Water, put it over the Fire, and stir it now and then, that your Sauce may thicken; then let it be of a good Taste, dish it up, and serve it up hot for a first Course.[6]
Adaptations
There are many legends regarding the origin of béchamel sauce. For example, it was said to have been created in Tuscany under the name "salsa colla" and brought to France with
Catherine de Medici, but this sauce was totally different from modern béchamel, and archival research has shown that "in the list of service people who had dealt with Catherine de Medici, since her arrival in France and until her death, there were absolutely no Italian chefs."[7] Both the béchamel recipe and its name have been adopted, even adapted, in many languages and culinary traditions.
However, it is often just called "white sauce" in the U.S.[13]
These adaptations have also caused various erroneous claims for the recipe's origin.[14][15]
Variants
Béchamel can be used as the base for many other sauces, such as
Mornay, which is béchamel with
cheese.[16] In Greek cuisine, béchamel (σάλσα μπεσαμέλ) is often enriched with egg.[17]
Free Culinary School Video Episode 11—An educational podcast episode that talks about the classical French technique used for making Sauce Béchamel and a few secondary sauces including Mornay, Basic Cream, Cheddar Cheese and Mustard Sauce.