*** Béchamel , what the United States of the Americas prefers to refer to as their; White or Cream Sauce***

*** Béchamel , what the United  States of the Americas prefers to refer to as their; White or Cream Sauce***
Béchamel,is not really one of the Mother Sauces

We Canadians live in a much more civilized country and should be proud of the English/French heritage.

 Originally cream added to a Veloute , the true mother sauce, today milk, and white roux with onion flavouring.

Because of its short storage life there is considerable disagreement among professional cooks as to whether or not Béchamel should be considered a Mother sauce and is usually considered such only by the Americans. .In most, if not quite all cases, any sauce witch calls for a béchamel sauce can be made equally well by simply using a good quality Veloute. American commercial packers do not use quality Veloute, and many have not even heard the term, but they do pack “creamed” vegetables that contain absolutely no cream or milk products. This of course greatly improves their bottom line.

Variations of Béchamel:

The variations for Veloute Sauce can also be made with Béchamel sauce; but why, especially today when everyone is so fat conscious. On the other hand, all variations or derivatives of Béchamel can also be made from Veloute, which is often a much healthier choice.

Please also note: Any of the following recipes, given for Béchamel Sauce can be, and perhaps should be made with a Veloute base.

4 Tbsps.                butter (**or less)

1 quart                 milk

1                           small onion

2                           whole cloves

1                           bay leaf

                             Salt and pepper, as needed

            **For thin, medium, or thick sauce follow amount roux as for Veloute Sauce

1. In top of double boiler, combine butter and flour and cook to make a pale roux.

2. Slowly add milk, stirring constantly.

3. Slit side of onion and place bay leaf in slit, insert cloves into onion. Put in sauce.

4. Place over water in bottom of double boiler and cook.

5. Remove onion, bay leaf and clove and finish sauce (quickly whip small pieces of firm butter into surface of sauce). Use as needed.

Rich Béchamel Sauce- To the finished béchamel sauce add 1 or 2 beaten egg yolks and heat the sauce without boiling it.

Cheddar Cheese- Add 1/2 cup shredded, sharp cheddar cheese.

·         Real Cream Sauce- Use heavy cream instead of milk, or

·         simply reduce heavy cream.

Curried Béchamel-To 1 cup béchamel sauce add 2 teaspoons curry powder, or to taste, mixed with a little cold milk. Stir sauce constantly, bring almost to a boil, and serve very hot.

Sauce Ménagée- To 1 generous cup rich béchamel add 4 hard-cooked egg yolks rubbed through a fine sieve, ½ teaspoon paprika, and salt to taste. Bring the sauce to a boil, stirring constantly from the bottom of the saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in a tablespoon finely diced sweet-sour gherkins. Serve with vegetables or poached eggs.

Mock Hollandaise Sauce- Pour sauce over 2 slightly beaten egg yolks, 2 Tbsps. each of butter and lemon juice, beat thoroughly and serve immediately.

Mornay Sauce No 1- Mix 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten, with a little cream and combine them with 2 cups hot béchamel sauce. Cook the mixture, stirring constantly, until it just reaches the boiling point. Add 2 tablespoons each of butter and grated Parmesan or Swiss cheese. Use for fish vegetables, poultry, poached eggs, noodle and macaroni mixtures, and other au gratin foods that are to be browned in the oven. The top may be sprinkled with grated cheese before browning. If a very even golden brown is desired, reserve a few tablespoons of the Mornay sauce, fold in 1 teaspoon whipped cream, and spread it over the top of the dish.

Mornay Sauce No. 2- Add 2 Tbsp. Gruyere cheese and 2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese.

Soubise Sauce- Rub 4 boiled onions and 2 sprigs parsley through course sieve (or use blender). Combine with sauce.

Yellow Sauce- Add hot sauce to 1 or 2 slightly beaten egg yolks and beat thoroughly.

Mushroom Sauce- To 1 cup béchamel sauce add ½ cup thinly sliced mushrooms, cooked in a little water and lemon juice, and drained, and stir in 1 tablespoon butter.

Hot Ravigote Sauce- In a saucepan combine 1/3 cup each of dry white wine and vinegar and 6 green onions, finely diced, and cook the mixture until it is reduced by two thirds. Add 2 cups béchamel sauce and boil the sauce gently for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add 2 tablespoons butter and 1 teaspoon mixed minced chervil, tarragon, and chives. Serve with boiled poultry or fish.

Norwegian Lobster Sauce- Make 3 cups medium béchamel sauce, using 2 cups milk and a cup of cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir into the sauce 1 scant cup cooked lobster meat cut in small pieces and sauteed in 2 tablespoons butter. In the top of a double boiler over hot water cook the sauce for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Do not let the sauce boil. Taste for seasoning and when ready to serve, stir in a generous ¼ cup Sherry. Serve with fish pudding.

Béchamel for Braised Veal or Chicken- After removing the veal or chicken from the pan, skim off the fat. Put 1 cup heavy cream in the pan, bring to a boil, and cook until it is reduced by half, stirring constantly and scraping in the brown bits. Add cup béchamel sauce, correct the seasoning with salt, and strain the sauce through a fine sieve. Add a few drops of lemon juice. This sauce should be ivory coloured. 

Horseradish Béchamel- To 1 cup béchamel sauce add 1 tablespoon well-drained prepared horseradish and a tiny dash of prepared mustard. Serve with corned beef, boiled beef, or boiled lamb.

Ivory Sauce- To each cup béchamel sauce ass ½ rounded teaspoon meat extract or 1 teaspoon glace de viande and stir in a tablespoon butter. Serve with boiled fish or eggs.

Oyster Sauce- To 1 cup béchamel sauce add ½ cup fish stock and ¼ cup cream. Reduce the mixture a little over high heat and stir in 1 tablespoon butter and 6 freshly shucked small oysters, poached in their own liquor.

Shrimp Sauce- To 1 cup béchamel sauce add ½ cup fish stock and ¼ cup cream. Reduce the mixture a little over high heat and stir in 1/3 cup hot cooked shelled and deveined shrimps cut into cubes and 1 tablespoon butter.

Subise Sauce (Onion Sauce) - Cook 2 cups finely minced onions in ½ cup beef stock for 3 to 4 minutes and drain them. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan, add the onions, and cook them over low heat until they are soft. Combine the onion pulp with 1 cup hot Mornay sauce. For a thinner sauce, combine pulp with 2 cups Mornay sauce.

Paprika Sauce- To 1 cup béchamel sauce add a tablespoon finely minced onion, blanched in a little water and well drained, and 2 teaspoons paprika. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve, and stir in 1 tablespoon butter. For tender cuts of lamb, veal fish poultry, or eggs.

Hot Tartar Sauce- To 1 cup béchamel sauce add ½ to ¾ cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon finely minced sweet pickles, 1 teaspoon each of grated onion and finely minced parsley, and 3 large green olives, finely minced. For deep-fried or broiled fish.

Venison Sauce- When the venison is roasted or sauteed, remove the meat from the pan and pour off the fat. To the pan drippings add 1 cup heavy cream and 1 tablespoon vinegar, scraping and stirring in all the brown bits. Cook the mixture for a few minutes, or until it is reduced by about one third. Add ¼ cup béchamel sauce. Season with salt and strain through a fine sieve. If the flavour of lemon juice is preferred to vinegar, omit the vinegar and add 1 teaspoon lemon juice after the sauce is cooked.

Newburg Sauce- Heat 1 tablespoon butter in the top of a double boiler, blend in 2 tablespoons flour, and gradually add 1 cup cream, stirring constantly until the mixture is thick and smooth. Do not let it boil. Add salt and cayenne to taste and pour the mixture slowly over 2 egg yolks, well beaten, stirring constantly. Cook the sauce over boiling water, stirring well for 3 minutes. Flavour sauce with 2 tablespoons dry Sherry. Serve with lobster or any other seafood.

Veloute Sauce-The True, White Mother Sauce

Velvety; smooth, Veloute the true "mother sauce" is now the second most commonly used of all the Mother Sauces. Many a famous restaurant and chef owe their success to Veloute sauces

Veloute sauce is also called sauce Blanche Grasse, fat white sauce, or rich white sauce. Because, Veloute is considered by many chefs to be the true mother sauce and Béchamel only a much  shorter lived derivative or variation any of the above sauces listed for béchamel may also be produced using only a good Veloute sauce.

                                    Pale roux

                                    White stock- veal, chicken, fish, or vegetable

Bouquet-garni- parsley, onion, celery, carrot

                                    Mushroom peel may also be used.

1. Add bouquet-garni and mushroom peeling, if available, to white stock, bring just to a boil, and simmer until stock has a very good flavour.

2. Strain stock and slowly add it to roux. Cook and finish sauce.

3. Pour into jar and refrigerate- to be used as the base for other sauces, in cream soups, on chicken, fish, shellfish, and on vegetables.

4. For 1 cup of:

Thin Sauce- for some soups

1 Tbsp.                                    fat

1 Tbsp.                                    flour

Medium Sauce- for gravies, sauces, creamed and scalloped dishes.

2 Tbsp.                                    fat

2 Tbsp.                                    flour

Thick Sauce-for cutlets, croquettes, and soufflés

4 Tbsp.                                    fat

4 Tbsp.                                    flour

Basic Veloute-White Sauce

Melt 1/3 cup butter in a saucepan, mix in 1/3 cup flour, and cook the roux for a few minutes. Add 3 cups white chicken or veal stock, ½ teaspoon salt, and a little pepper and cook the mixture, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Cook the sauce, stirring occasionally, until it reduces to about 2½ c ups and is very thick but light and creamy.

Fish Veloute- White Sauce

Fish Veloute- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan, mix in 2 tablespoons flour, and cook the roux slowly until it just starts to turn golden. Add, little by little 2 cups fish stock, stirring vigorously with a piano wire whip. Cook the sauce for 15 to 20 minutes and strain it through a fine sieve.

Or reduce the liquid in which fish was poached and thicken it with beurre manie made by creaming together 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon flour.

Egg Sauce for Fish- White Sauce

To 1½ cups fish Veloute add 2 tablespoons butter in small bits, stirring, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, and 2 hard cooked eggs, chopped. Serve very hot

Sauce Supreme-White Sauce

 Chicken Veloute reduced with heavy cream-In a saucepan combine 2 cups chicken stock with 3 sliced mushrooms, or the stems and peelings of mushrooms, and cook the mixture until it is reduced by two thirds. Combine it with 1 cup Veloute, bring the mixture to a boil, reduce it to about 1 cup, and gradually add 1 cup heavy sweet cream, stirring constantly. Correct the seasoning with salt and a little cayenne and strain the sauce through a fine sieve. If the sauce is not to be used immediately, put a little butter on top to prevent a crust from forming. For chicken

Epicurean Sauce Supreme-

Epicurean Sauce Supreme- In a saucepan mix 2 egg yolks with 1/3 cup scalded heavy cream and 3 tablespoons dry Sherry and add 1 cup Veloute made with double-strength chicken stock. Bring the sauce to a boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Season to taste with salt and white pepper and stir in 1 ½ tablespoons finely diced black truffles, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, and a scant ½ teaspoon paprika. For chicken.

Sauce Allemande- White Sauce

Veal Veloute with egg yolk and cream liaison-Mix 2 lightly beaten egg yolks with a little cream and combine them with 2 cups hot Supreme sauce. Cook the sauce, stirring constantly, until it comes to a boil. Finish with 2 tablespoons heavy cream. This is an extremely rich sauce, to be used with foods that are not too rich, such as stewed or steamed chicken.

Sauce Poulette-White Sauce

 In a saucepan in 1 tablespoon butter sauté 6 to 8 mushrooms, minced, until they just start to brown. Mix in 2 shallots, finely diced, and add ½ cup cream. Cook the mixture until it is reduced by half and add ½ cup Veloute sauce. Bring the mixture to a boil and add salt to taste. Add 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten, mixed with a little cream. Bring the sauce again to a boil, stirring constantly, but do not boil it. Add the juice of ½ lemon and ½ teaspoon minced parsley, or fish and poultry.

Maitre d’ Hotel Sauce- White Sauce

To 1 cup Veloute add ¼ cup water. Heat the mixture in a saucepan and beat in, a little at a time, ¼ cup butter. Add the juice of ½ lemon and 1 tablespoon each of finely diced parsley and fresh tarragon. Serve hot. This sauce is not to be confused with maitre d’hôtel butter

Bercy Sauce for Fish-White Sauce

Bercy Sauce for Fish-Add 1 cup thick Veloute sauce to 1/2cup concentrated fish stock. Bring the sauce o a boil and add 2 tablespoons butter and a little minced parsley. Pour the sauce over fish and brown it in a hot oven (400 F.) or under a salamander. For a very even golden brown fold 1 tablespoon whipped cream into a little of the sauce and spread the cream mixture on top of the fish.

Sauce Marinière-White Sauce

Sauce Marinière- To produce this very famous, traditional sauce, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan. Add 2  green onions, finely diced- remember, only those mythical peoples living in the none existent country of America, chop, hack, and slash, every thing- (in real, more civilized countries, the chefs recognize that for, appearance, and more even cooking, it is much better to use a uniform, mince, dice, cube etc. ) and ½ cup cream. Cook the mixture until it is reduced by half and stir in ½ cup Veloute sauce. Bring the mixture to a boil, correct seasoning with salt, and stir in 2 egg yolks beaten with ¼ cup cream. Cook the sauce over low heat, stirring constantly, until it is thickened, but do not let it boil. Finish the sauce by stirring in the juice of ½ lemon. Used traditionally with fish garnished with cooked mussels, but suitable for any fish.

A History of Sauces

A History of Sauces

 In leading Paris restaurants the saucier is second in rank only to the head chef. The saucier, prepares sauces and often all stuffings, on his skill alone depends the success of many of the most elaborate dishes in French cuisine. Sauces and stuffings have much in common. Stuffing’s are very much under appreciated by the average cook they, like sauces, give additional flavour and body to dishes; they enhance or glamorize what might otherwise be rather plain fare; and, in terms of preparation, both must be well seasoned and perfectly blended so that the flavours melt together.

            The word “sauce” is a French word that means a relish to make our food more appetizing. Sauces are liquid or semi-liquid foods devised to extend foods, make them look, smell and taste better and hence be more easily digested, more beneficial. 

            Because of the lack of refrigeration in the early days of cooking, meat poultry, fish, and seafood didn’t last long. Sauces and gravies were used to mask the flavour of tainted foods.

200 A. D. – The Romans used sauces todisguise the taste of the food, and to conceal doubtful freshness. According to the articleFood & Cooking in Roman Britain By Marian Woodman:

          “The main course or primae mensai varied both in the number and elaboration of dishes. Roast and boiled meat, poultry, and game or other meat delicacies would be served. No dish was complete without highly flavoured and seasoned sauce.” Contrary to present Canadian preference, “the main object seemed to be to disguise the natural taste of food- possibly to conceal doubtful freshness, possibly to demonstrate the variety of costly spices available to the host” (this practice still exists in the United States today as is evidenced by some of the barbecue and chicken recipes). Some times so many ingredients were used in a sauce it was impossible to single out one flavour. One Roman cook bitterly complained that some of his fellow cooks’” When they season their dinners they don’t use condiments for seasoning but screech owls, which eat out the intestines of the guest alive”. Apicius wrote at the end of one of his recipes for a particularly flavoursome sauce, “No one at table will know what he is eating”. These sauces were usually thickened with wheat flour or crumbled pastry. Honey was often incorporated into a “sweet and sour” dish or sauce.

          Highly flavoured sauces often containing as many as a dozen ingredients were extensively used to mask the natural flavours of ‘Roman food. The most commonly used seasoning was liquamen, the nearest equivalent today being a very strong fish stock, with anchovies as its main ingredient (this was, and still is today, the main purpose of incorporating anchovies in to any dish). This was so popular that it was factory –produced in many towns of the Roman Empire.

Basic White and Poultry Stocks for Sauces

 Parboil 1 pound veal or chicken bones or a combination of both for a few minutes, just long enough for the scum to rise to the top. Drain the bones, cover with 1-½ quarts cold water, and add 1 teaspoon salt, 2 onions, 2 leeks, 1 carrot, and a bouquet garni. Bring the water to a boil, skim off the fat, and simmer the stock for 3 hours. Remove the fat, strain the stock, and store it in the refrigerator for no longer than a week. Makes about 3 pints

WHITE VEAL AND POULTRY STOCK 

Quantities for making four quarts:

5 quarts of cold water

8 lbs. shin of veal, or lean and fresh veal trimmings

4 ozs. leeks (white part only).

I or 2 fowl carcases, raw (whole or cut up).

12 ozs. of carrots. 

     Parsley  

2 bay leafs

6 ozs onion,cubed.

Preparation. 

1. Bone the shins, if used.
2. Break up the bones as small as possible, and put them in a stock pot with the water.
3. Allow to boil, skim carefully, and then simmer five hours more.
4. At the end of this time put the stock into another stock pot, add the meat and the vegetables, add water, if necessary, to keep the quantity of liquid at five quarts, let it just come to a boil; then allow it to simmer slowly for another three hours, after which time remove all grease from the stock, pass the latter through a fine strainer or a colander, lined with cheese cloth, and put it aside until wanted.

Poultry Stock is made by adding two old fowls to the above veal stock, and these should be put into the liquor with the meat.

Remarks Relative to the Making of any Stock.

Whether brown or white, stock should never be salted, because it is never served in its original state. It is either reduced in order to make glazes or sauces — in which case the concentration answers the purpose of seasoning — or else it is used to cook meat which must be salted before being cooked, and which, therefore, imparts the necessary salt to its surrounding liquor. s upon White Stock:

One should contrive to make White Stock as gelatinous as possible. It is therefore an indispensable measure that the bones be well broken up and cooked for at least eight hours. Veal never yields such clear stock

as beef; nevertheless, the consommé obtained from veal should not be turbid. It must, on the contrary, be kept as clear and as white as possible. 

© Al (Alex-Alexander) D. Girvan. All rights reserved.

The White Sauces

The White Sauces

          The Two main variations of White Sauce are Béchamel and Veloute. Veloute is the real "Mother Sauce" Bechamel a short shelf life derivative