Classic Béchamel Sauce Recipe - Savory Nothings (2024)

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A Classic Béchamel Sauce (also known as “white sauce”) is one of the most simple recipes out there, but it is such a great technique to know!

Please note, this makes a larger quantity of sauce (enough for 4 layers of white sauce in a 9×13 inch lasagna). The recipe is fine to cut in half or even into ¼ if you need less.

Recipe by Nora from Savory Nothings

5 from 6 votes

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Prep 5 minutes mins

Cook 10 minutes mins

Total 15 minutes mins

• ▢ 8 tablespoons butter
• ▢ ¾ cup flour measure correctly! spoon flour into measuring cup, then level with the back of a knife. Otherwise you will end up with way too much flour!
• ▢ 4 ½ cups milk
• ▢ ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg or more to taste
• ▢ salt and pepper to taste (use enough salt, or the sauce will be bland; if adding cheese to sauce after cooking, salt after adding cheese)

• Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat (saucepan needs to hold at least 2 quart).

• Whisk flour into butter and cook, whisking constantly, for 2-4 minutes. Flour must not brown.

• Gradually whisk milk into flour/butter mixture, do not allow lumps to form. Once all milk has been added, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until sauce has thickened, whisking constantly (if sauce hasn't thickened after 5 minutes, heat setting is too low – increase a little until sauce is just bubbling and thickens).

• If needing a thinner sauce, slowly and gradually whisk in more milk until desired consistency is reached.

• Season sauce with ground nutmeg and add salt and pepper to taste. Use in favorite recipe.

Ingredient notes

• Butter: Butter is a big part of the richness for this sauce, so please do not use oil or spreadable margarine as a substitute. If you need this to be dairy free, I strongly recommend making it with the best vegan butter substitute you can find. At the very least, use a decent stick margarine if you can’t have butter.
• Milk: For the richest sauce, you’ll want to go with whole milk here. Although 2% also works great. Any milk with less fat content will yield a less rich/creamy sauce. The recipe still works, the taste and texture are just a little different.
• Flour: Use all-purpose flour for this recipe. Please do not use whole wheat as a substitute, as it will alter the color of the sauce.
• Nutmeg: Nutmeg is a must in classic Béchamel. It’s only a pinch and works very well with the flavor of the sauce. Don’t worry, it will not make it taste like pumpkin spice latte.

Recipe tips

• Do not brown the flour, it needs to stay fully light in color for a Béchamel sauce.
• This sauce isn’t a “set it and forget it” kind of recipe. You need to constantly babysit and whisk it. It cooks quickly, so it really isn’t that big of a burden, but I wanted to mention it so you don’t walk away from your saucepan while it’s on the stove.
• Only use medium-low heat after adding the milk, Béchamel catches on the bottom of the pot quickly when set over too high a heat.
• I’m adding the classic ratio for Béchamel sauce in the recipe card below, which yields a fairly thick sauce. But you can alter the amount of milk added to suit the recipe you’ll want to use it in. The texture as-is is perfect for my Lasagna (you want to add 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese to the Béchamel for Lasagna, too). But if you need a more liquid-y sauce for your recipe, you can thin it out with more milk.
• The sauce thickens as it cools and gets more liquid again as it heats up (kind of like condensed cream soups). So keep that in mind if you want to change the thickness – only add more milk if the sauce really needs it.

How to make a Roux/Béchamel sauce for beginners

This technique is called making a roux (cooking flour in butter) to make a Béchamel sauce (adding milk/cream to create a creamy, thickened white sauce). Here are my tips to make a roux without messing it up if you are a beginner:

• You must use medium to medium-low heat to cook the flour/butter mixture and the flour mustn’t brown.
• If you are new to making roux, I highly recommend taking the pot off the heat to stir in the flour. This gives you a little more time to avoid lumps and to keep the flour from getting too hot. Once you have fully stirred the flour into the butter, place the pot back over medium heat again and cook for 30-60 seconds, stirring constantly, until the flour is foamy.
• Now take the pot off the heat again and gradually stir in the milk. This is not how you usually make a béchamel sauce (you’d leave it on the heat), but I have tested this several times and for beginners, it’s an absolutely easy way to make a great roux/béchamel without creating a lumpy or burned sauce.
• Once you have fully combined the milk (plus any other liquid your recipe calls for) with the flour mixture, set the pot back over medium-low heat and simmer until thickened while constantly stirring.