Béchamel sauce

 

The first recipe of a sauce similar to béchamel is in the book 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:

Take some Parsley and Chibbol,^[5] and mince them very small, put in a Saucepan a good lump of Butter, with your Parsley and Chibbol, and some minced Shallots, season'd with Salt and Pepper, some Nutmeg, and a dust of Flour: Take a Turbot boil'd in Court Bouillon, take it off by pieces and put it into your Stew-pan: put in a little Cream, Milk, or a little Water, put it over the Fire, and stir it now and then, that your Sauce may thicken; then let it be of a good Taste, dish it up, and serve it up hot for a first Course.^[6]

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,^[7] 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."^[8] 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.^[9]

Béchamel is referred to as:

• besciamella or balsamella in Italy,^[10]
• μπεσαμέλ (spelled mpesamél, pronounced besamél) in Greece,^[11]
• بشمل (bashamel) in Egypt,^[12]
• he:רוטב בשאמל in Israel,
• бешамель (biešamieĺ) in Russia,^[13]
• beszamel in Poland,^[14] and
• white sauce in the U.S.^[15]

These adaptations have also caused various erroneous claims for the recipe's origin.^[16][17]

Béchamel can be used as the base for many other sauces, such as Mornay, which is béchamel with cheese.^[18] In Greek cuisine, béchamel (σάλσα μπεσαμέλ) is often enriched with egg.^[19]

Béchamel is used in dishes such as the Italian lasagne al forno^[20] and canelons (Catalan; Castilian canelones), a Catalan version of Italian cannelloni.^[21][22] It was introduced to Greek cuisine by the chef Nikolaos Tselementes in the 1930s,^[23] notably in moussaka^[24] and pastitsio.^[25] The Karelian-Finnish sipatti is smoked, cubed and sauteed pork belly in white sauce base,^[26] and kananmunakastike is boiled and sliced eggs in a white sauce base.^[27] These are typically eaten as mains with potatoes.

• Sausage gravy
• List of sauces

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Béchamel.

• Free Culinary School Video Episode 11—An educational podcast episode that talks about the classical French technique used for making Sauce Béchamel and a few secondary sauces including Mornay, Basic Cream, Cheddar Cheese and Mustard Sauce.
• "Bechamel" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.