How to make a Simple White Sauce

Making a white sauce fills many people with dread, if you are one of these people, your quest has ended, below is THE simplest recipe for a fantastic white sauce and best of all it WORKS!!

These things are always easier with a few tricks and tips up your sleeve! And this simple sauce will open up an avalanche of new recipes and ideas, you’ll wonder however you got by without it!

A good white sauce can have so many uses and I always use a good chicken stock with some milk and real butter as it adds a depth of flavour that just makes the sauce.
What You Will Need
For a Pouring Sauce
15g or ½ oz or 1 Tbsp Butter
15g or ½ oz or 2 Tbsp Plain White Flour
300ml or ½ pint Milk (this can be skimmed, low fat or full)

** Substitute chicken stock or a mix of milk and stock

For a Thicker Coating Sauce
25g or 1oz or 2tbsp Butter
25g or 1oz or ½ pint Milk or 1¼ cups Milk

What To Do
Warm the milk gently, don’t let it boil, then pour this into a jug, then use the same sauce pan and melt the butter gently then add the flour and give it a good stir with a wooden spoon or if you have a non stick hand whisk use this.

Take the pan off the heat and stir for 1 – 2 minutes cooking the flour mixture. This mixture is called a roux and can be used as a base for all kinds of sauces. When the roux is smooth and has changed colour to a whitish hue it is ready for the chicken stock or milk.

Add half the milk slowly, the secret with white sauce is to keep stirring or whisking in a continuous motion get the spoon/whisk into the ‘corners’ of the pan to incorporate all the milk. The corners is where the sides meet the bottom of the pan and it’s a devil to coax the roux out or these.

When you have added half the milk, return the pan to a low/medium heat. Now this is where a lot of people go askew. So I have some ‘rules’:

• Don’t let the sauce heat up too quickly as this will burn the roux mixture left on the bottom of the pan.

• KEEP stirring or whisking, do a grid like pattern and then really get into the corners and change direction to stop you getting bored!!
• Don’t add all the milk at once, it may be too much, depending upon the thickness you like.

When the sauce begins to thicken add some more milk and then let it begin to thicken again and add some more, repeat this until the sauce is the desired thickness. You may have left over milk, you may need to add a bit more, it just depends upon your thickness preference, usually for a pouring sauce it should coat the back of the spoon.

My White Sauce Tips

• For a thicker sauce add a little more flour at the roux stage

• Try and use a non stick pan

• Keep removing the pan from the heat if the sauce is ‘going’ to fast. sometime the sauce can begin to thicken really quickly, other time it seems to take forever, but one thing is certain when it does start to thicken it can turn to custard is you take your eyes off it for even a second!!

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