Béchamel sauce explained

Béchamel sauce
Alternate Name:White sauce
Place Of Origin:France
Type:Sauce
Main Ingredient:Butter, flour, milk
Variations:Mornay sauce, cardinal sauce, Nantua sauce, Breton sauce, suprême sauce, soubise sauce

Béchamel sauce (pronounced as /fr/) is one of the mother sauces of French cuisine, made from a white roux (butter and flour) and milk,[1] seasoned with ground nutmeg.[2]

Origin

The first recipe of a sauce similar to béchamel is in the book French: Le cuisinier françois by François Pierre de La Varenne in 1651, made with a roux, as in modern recipes.[3] The name of the sauce was given in honour of Louis de Béchameil, a financier who held the honorary post of chief steward to King Louis XIV of France in the 17th century.

The first named béchamel sauce appears in The Modern Cook, written by Vincent La Chapelle and published in 1733,[4] in which the following recipe for "Turbots (a la Bechameille)" appears:

Adaptations

There are many legends regarding the origin of béchamel sauce. For example, it is widely repeated in Italy that the sauce has been created in Tuscany under the name "salsa colla" and brought to France with Catherine de Medici, but this is an invented story,[5] and archival research has shown that "in the list of service people who had dealt with Catherine de Medici, since her arrival in France and until her death, there were absolutely no Italian chefs."[6] Both the béchamel recipe and its name have been adopted, even adapted, in many languages and culinary traditions.

Béchamel, although not with this name, was already described in Italian texts of the Renaissance: in particular in the "Book of cuisine of the 14th century" by Anonimo Toscano, the recipe for a dish called "biancomangiare" is cited. The 14th century recipe required sifting the (rice) flour, then diluting it with goat's, sheep's or almond milk and finally boiling it in a pan. To this sauce was then added a finely chopped chicken breast, white lard, sugar and almonds.[7]

Béchamel is referred to as:

These adaptations have also caused various erroneous claims for the recipe's origin.[14] [15]

Variants

Béchamel can be used as the base for many other sauces, such as Mornay, which is béchamel with cheese.[16] In Greek cuisine, béchamel (σάλσα μπεσαμέλ) is often enriched with egg.[17]

Uses

Béchamel is used in dishes such as the Italian lasagne al forno[18] and canelons (Catalan; Castilian canelones), a Catalan version of Italian cannelloni.[19] [20] It was introduced to Greek cuisine by the chef Nikolaos Tselementes in the 1930s,[21] notably in moussaka[22] and pastitsio.[23] The Karelian-Finnish sipatti is smoked, cubed and sauteed pork belly in white sauce base,[24] and kananmunakastike is boiled and sliced eggs in a white sauce base.[25] These are typically eaten as mains with potatoes.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: How to Make Bechamel Sauce. 10 December 2014. escoffieronline.com . 8 October 2020.
  2. Web site: Sauce béchamel par Alain Ducasse. 2020-10-16. L'Académie du Goût. fr.
  3. Book: La Varenne, François Pierre. Le cuisinier françois, enseignant la manière de bien apprester et assaisonner toutes sortes de viandes... légumes,... par le sieur de La Varenne,... . 1651 . FR.
  4. Book: Kurlansky, Mark . 8 May 2018 . Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas . Bloomsbury Publishing USA . 9781632863843 .
  5. Web site: Cesari . Luca . 2024-01-21 . Caterina de' Medici: così i francesi hanno inventato il mito di una regina in cucina . 2024-08-14 . Gambero Rosso . it-IT.
  6. Web site: The New Gastronome The Illusive Story Of Catherine de' Medici A Gastronomic Myth. Antonella Campanini . 18 December 2018. Università di Scienze Gastronomiche di Pollenzo. 3 April 2023.
  7. Book: "Se vuoi fare il Blasmangeri" . 1899 . Livorno . XI . . Libro di cucina del secolo XIV a cura di Ludovico Frati . Il biancomangiare non è in alcun modo una "preparazione simile" alla besciamella
  8. Web site: Besciamella (Italian-Style Béchamel Sauce). Farideh Sadeghin . 7 January 2008. saveur.com . 8 October 2020.
  9. Web site: A Basic Greek Besamel (Bechamel). Nancy Gaifyllia . 27 March 2020. thespruceeats.com . 8 October 2020.
  10. Book: McWilliams, Mark. 2016. Food and Communication: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2015. Oxford Symposium. 15. 9781909248496.
  11. Book: Molokhovets, Elena. 1998. Classic Russian Cooking: Elena Molokhovets' A Gift to Young Housewives. Indiana University Press. 265. 9780253212108.
  12. Book: Strybel, Robert and Maria. 2005. Polish Heritage Cookery. Hippocrene Books. 519. 9780781811248.
  13. Web site: How To Make a Béchamel Sauce (White Sauce) . Durand . Faith . 2010-11-10 . Kitchn . AT Media . 2020-09-10.
  14. Book: Tselementes, Nicholas. 1972. Greek Cookery. D.C.. Divry. 9780900834745.
  15. Web site: History and legends of Béchamel sauce. 16 September 2015. What's cooking America. 3 April 2023.
  16. Delmy Dauenhauer, 10 Ways to Use Béchamel Sauce, London : SamEnrico, 2015, .
  17. Book: Tselementes, Nikolaos K. . Greek Cookery . 1950 . D.C. Divry . 92 . en.
  18. Web site: Classic Lasagne al Forno with Bolognese . Jacqui Debono . 27 February 2018. the-pasta-project.com . 8 October 2020.
  19. Web site: Canelones de San Esteban. littlespain.com. 5 April 2023.
  20. Web site: Cultura popular – Canelons. barcelona.cat. 25 July 2023.
  21. [Aglaia Kremezi]
  22. Web site: Eli K. Giannopoulos . 14 May 2013 . Traditional Greek Moussaka recipe (Moussaka with Béchamel) . 8 October 2020 . mygreekdish.com.
  23. Web site: Mannering . Sam . 21 August 2022 . You should make pastitsio - a kind of Greek lasagne - tonight . 14 September 2022 . . Pour the bechamel sauce over the top of the beef, followed by the rest of the pasta, pressing it slightly into the bechamel.
  24. https://www.soosinystavat.fi/ruokaperinnetta
  25. Kotiliesi magazine, Otava Media 2024. https://kotiliesi.fi/resepti/isoaidin-kananmunakastike/

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