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Velouie and Bechamel Sauce

A rich sauce made by simmering veal, beef, and optional calf's foot stock with white roux, finished with mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Velouie and Bechamel Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Cut the veal and beef into pieces and place in a large pot.

  2. Cover the meat with water, about 1 inch above the meat, and bring to a rapid boil.

  3. Skim off any foam, then let it boil for 6 hours.

  4. If using in summer, add the calf's foot to the pot.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the stock and mix it with the white roux until thick, similar to double cream.

  2. Let it simmer slowly until the butter from the roux rises, then skim off the fat.

  3. Finish the sauce as you would for brown sauce, adding chopped mushrooms if desired.

  4. Allow the sauce to boil well before straining through a tammy cloth.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Releases gelatin and body into the stock, giving the sauce a silky, full texture.
Leg of beef
Adds meaty depth and savoury flavour to the stock.
White roux
Flour and butter thicken the strained stock into a smooth, coating sauce.
Trimmings of fowl or 1 old hen
Contributes extra gelatin and poultry flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the stock and the sauce. Foam and fat rising during the long boil cloud the liquid and taste greasy. Removing them keeps the stock clear and the sauce smooth and clean-flavoured.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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