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Sauce

Easy Mornay Sauce

A cheese sauce made with butter, flour, milk, egg yolks, and grated cheese.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Easy Mornay Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the roux

  1. Melt butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add flour and stir for 3 or 4 minutes until the sauce is smooth.

Finish the sauce

  1. Add hot milk, stirring constantly.

  2. While still stirring, add egg yolks.

  3. Remove from heat and fold in grated cheese.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

897Calories
34 gProtein
35 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and coats the flour to start the roux.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter into a smooth base.
Milk
Forms the liquid body of the sauce and carries its flavor.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the sauce as they gently heat and set.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and melts into the sauce for body.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks while stirring. Egg yolk proteins set when heated, so hot spots can make them curdle into lumps. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly, letting the yolks thicken the sauce smoothly.

“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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