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Bechamel Sauce

A creamy sauce made with butter, flour, boiling water, cream, and herbs, suitable for fish, poultry, or vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Bechamel Sauce

Why it works: Parsley and thyme 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

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, combine butter and flour, and beat to a cream.

  2. Pour the boiling water into the mixture.

Simmer with flavourings

  1. Tie the herbs in a bunch and add them to the saucepan.

  2. Add the vegetables, beef extract, mace, salt, and pepper.

  3. Place the saucepan on the heat and simmer slowly for 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the sauce into a clean saucepan, add cream, and stir frequently until it reaches boiling point.

  2. Serve as a delicious sauce for fish, poultry, or vegetables.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour, giving it a rich mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, coating sauce when cooked with the butter.
Cream
Adds richness and body, softening the sauce's flavour and texture.
Onion
Contributes savoury, aromatic sweetness as it simmers in the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling water to the butter and flour. Pouring the water in all at once and beating well keeps the flour smooth. Adding it slowly while whisking prevents lumps, because the starch must hydrate evenly before the sauce thickens.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, parsley, thyme, butter, flour, beef):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, parsley, thyme, butter, flour, beef. 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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