White Sauce Basics

As I am looking at the recipes I plan to post in the near future, I realize that a number of them include a white sauce.  I thought I would give a little intro to white sauces here so you would know what I was referring to when I say thin, medium, or thick white sauce.

A white sauce is a sauce made with butter, flour (white), and milk, cream, or some kind of stock.  It serves as the base to many different sauces including many pasta sauces (I am a pasta addict, I'll admit it right here in the open).

OK, so a white sauce is really pretty basic.  Below is a chart that shows the proportions.

Thin	Medium	Thick
1 Tbs butter 1 Tbs flour 1/4 tsp salt(optional) 1 cup milk	2 Tbs butter 2 Tbs flour 1/2 tsp salt(optional) 1 cup milk	3 Tbs butter 3 Tbs flour 1/2 tsp salt(optional) 1 cup milk

One thing to keep in mind is that there should always be an equal amount of butter and flour.

Step 1:  Heat the butter until it just starts to foam.

Step 2: Add the desired amount of flour and salt.

Step 3: Mix it together until it is a smooth paste and the flour has just begun to turn golden.  This paste of flour and butter is called a rue.

Step 4: Stirring constantly, slowly add COLD milk.  The cold milk makes it so that there are no flour clumps in the sauce.

Step 5: Continue to stir until thickened.

Step 6: Immediately remove from heat and set aside for use in your recipe.

I hope you find this helpful!