White sauce

by Kay

White sauce is very easy to make but there are still people who are unsure of how to make it – otherwise supermarkets wouldn't sell so much of the packet mix stuff! Here's an easy recipe for how to make a simple white sauce – which in turn can be used as the basis for many other flavoured sauces.

White Sauce

Ingredients:

600ml (1 pint) milk
50g (2oz) roux
salt and pepper

Roux

Not sure how to make roux? See our article and photo-essay. All you need is butter and flour, so there's nothing complicated about it.

Method

Put the milk in a pan and bring it to the boil. Thicken the milk by whisking in the roux bit by bit until you achieve the desired thickness. Add salt and pepper to taste. That's it! Simple white sauce.

Other sauces

Parsley sauce: add freshly chopped parsley to the white sauce
Cheese sauce: add grated mature cheddar – a dash of mustard improves the flavour

The variety is endless. Why not experiment and if you come up with anything good, please let us know on our Food and Drink Forum. Similarly, if you have any comments or feedback, you can get in touch with us there too.

Cook's Notes

As I said on our How to Make Roux page, it seems counter-intuitive to add the roux to the milk rather than the other way round. (I added milk to roux for years until I more recently discovered the method described above.) However, you get a more professional result and taste by doing it this way. Plus it's actually easier, in terms of needing less elbow grease. Give it a try!

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