Roux & Béchamel Sauce 101

Roux & Béchamel go hand in hand. A roux is such a versatile technique/recipe component to put into your repertoire, and a classic béchamel, which you can't make without a roux, has so many uses!    Just to clear things up, here are the technical definitions for these terms, brought to you by dictionary.com:

Roux: 
–noun

a cooked mixture of butter or other fat and flour used to thickensauces, soups, etc.

Béchamel:
–noun
a white sauce, sometimes seasoned with onion and nutmeg. Also called bechamel sauce .

As a rule of thumb, roux is normally a 1-1 ratio of butter & flour.  To start your roux you need to:
1.  Melt the butter

2. Add the flour

3. Whisk to combine.

Now check out the rest in the video!  The first part covers making the roux, and the second part takes the roux and turns it into a béchamel. PS - I have the worst camera skills... it's hard to cook and take a movie at the same time, so I apologize in advance for the shakiness.  Oh and don't even get me started on the edits!

To see these components put into a dish, check out my mac & cheese recipe here.

Was this helpful?  Were the explanations good & thorough enough for you to feel comfortable trying to make these things?  Your feedback is much appreciated!