Bechamel Sauce by Jerkstore77
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
This is the trickiest part of the process in that you have to work quickly to keep this sauce from getting fucked up. As such, you only get 2 pictures, a start and finish.
Since you need to make this sauce kind of rapidly, I like to get all the ingredients together ready to add as soon as they are needed.
Get a whisk ready. Melt the butter on low heat in a saucepan. Slowly sprinkle the flour into the pan, whisking to get rid of all the lumps that will form. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. You should end up with a golden colored paste.
Slowly whisk in the milk, again trying to keep lumps from forming while you mix. Once all the milk is added, increase the heat a bit and bring it to a boil. You need to keep mixing through the whole process to keep clumps from forming on the bottom of the pan. Once it is boiling, and the salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and keep mixing. Reduce to medium heat and keep whisking until it thickens, about 6 minutes. It should be the consistency of melted ice cream. This is what it should look like.
You want to occasionally stir this sauce even after its off the heat or it will develop a skin on top like pudding. It will also slowly thicken as time goes by, so if you arent ready to go to the next step once this sauce is ready, you will end up with Bechamel paste instead of Bechamel sauce. Don't ignore this sauce.