The (small) miracle of béchamel sauce
Making a béchamel sauce is going to confront you with a little miracle that happens every time: You pour milk over a roux, it's very liquid, you stir over a low heat, and then all of a sudden, miracle, the sauce sets, it thickens, you've got your béchamel.
Let's see what happened.
Let's see what happened.
3,936 4/5 (4 reviews)
Keywords for this post:SauceMethodPrincipleExplanationStarchTemperatureRouxConsistencyBéchamelLast modified on: August 27th 2024
The (small) miracle of béchamel sauce
A basic sauce
Making it is quite simple: first a "roux" mixture of flour and butter, which is heated and colored (hence its name).
Once the roux has reached the right color, cold milk is added, the mixture is very liquid, and you continue to cook and stir over low heat until it thickens (you'll find the full recipe here).
But why does it thicken? As you'd expect, there's no magic involved, just a little physics and chemistry.
Flour and starch
The secret lies in the roux's flour, which contains grains of starch, a complex sugar made up of glucose molecules rolled up into tiny little balls.
It's around 70°C that the magic happens: the grains of starch in the flour break up into smaller grains, starch molecules that begin to absorb the milk around them, up to 20 times their volume, thus increasing the sauce's viscosity.
This process, known as starch gelatinization, takes place between 70°C and 85°C, giving béchamel its characteristic thick, creamy consistency.
Note in passing that this process of starch gelatinization is also at work in, among other things, crème pâtissière or flan, where flour is often replaced by maïzena, a corn starch.
In short: Béchamel thickens because it contains flour that is heated, causing its starch grains to burst and absorb the milk around them.
So béchamel is not just a culinary classic, it's also a little chemistry lesson in action.
Lasts posts
Your oven in "proofer" mode
In the bakery, proofing is a crucial stage in the process of making light, plump breads and pastries. During proofing, the yeast ferments the sugars present in the dough, releasing carbon dioxide which forms bubbles. This process allows the dough to swell and aerate, guaranteeing a soft, light...September 27th 20243,1335
The right size of zucchini
When you buy zucchini at the market, you're often offered a wide variety of sizes, from very small to very large. But which ones to choose? Here are a few tips.September 9th 20243,4755
Pastry doughs
To make a classic tart, you'll need a pastry of course, and if you don't use puff pastry (normally reserved for "fine", in french, tarts), you'll have a choice of shortcrust, shortbread, sweetcrust or "à foncer". Let's take a look at the differences between these four.August 16th 20244,0124.4
A few tips on homemade ice cream
If you make ice cream at home, which is a very, very good idea, you'll find a few tips and tricks in this article that should make your life easier. Combined with the site's ice cream recipes, they'll help you improve your production, to the delight of everyone around you, children first.August 11th 20244,0535
The different cooking modes
In cooking, cooking means bringing food into contact with a source of heat, to transform it: improving its taste, and sometimes its texture. This contact with the heat source can be achieved in a number of ways: these are the cooking methods, and let's take a look at the main ones.July 24th 20244,3714.7
Other pages you may also like
Your oven in "proofer" mode
In the bakery, proofing is a crucial stage in the process of making light, plump breads and pastries. During proofing, the yeast ferments the sugars present in the dough, releasing carbon dioxide which forms bubbles. This process allows the dough to swell and aerate, guaranteeing a soft, light...September 27th 20243,1335
The right size of zucchini
When you buy zucchini at the market, you're often offered a wide variety of sizes, from very small to very large. But which ones to choose? Here are a few tips.September 9th 20243,4755
Pastry doughs
To make a classic tart, you'll need a pastry of course, and if you don't use puff pastry (normally reserved for "fine", in french, tarts), you'll have a choice of shortcrust, shortbread, sweetcrust or "à foncer". Let's take a look at the differences between these four.August 16th 20244,0124.4
Candied fruits: don't get ripped off
Do you like candied fruit? You might like to nibble a handful or add it to a recipe, like a classic fruit cake or delicious Italian specialities like panettone or sicilian epiphany pie.June 21th 201757 K 24.2
Egg yolks and caster sugar
We often come across recipes where we need to mix egg yolks with caster sugar. This would appear to be a very ordinary and simple thing to do but, be warned, these two ingredients can behave oddly together.February 15th 201875 K 24.3
Post a comment or question
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.