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Bechamel Sauce

A creamy white sauce made with butter, flour, milk, mushroom liquor, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Bechamel Sauce

Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Bechamel Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, rub together the butter and flour until smooth.

  2. Slowly stir in the boiling milk, beating well until combined.

  3. Add the mushroom liquor, salt, pepper, bay leaf, celery, thyme, and parsley.

  4. Cook for 15 minutes, then strain through a fine sieve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce by swelling its starch as it heats.
Butter
Forms the roux with the flour and adds a rich, smooth flavour and mouthfeel.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the roux thickens into a creamy sauce.
Mushroom liquor
Adds savoury, earthy flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Slowly stir in the boiling milk. Flour starch must be dispersed evenly in the fat before and while the liquid goes in. Adding the milk slowly while beating prevents lumps, because starch granules clump when they hit hot liquid all at once.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, mushroom, pepper, thyme, parsley):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, mushroom, pepper, thyme, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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