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How a most versatile mother sauce made my mom’s life easier
• by Julia M. Usher • Photo by Steve Adams Studio, food styling by Julia M. Usher
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As the middle child in my family, I it was charged with certain non-negotiable household chores. The most significant was cooking dinner for my siblings when Mom and Dad went out on the town. Though my mother cooked with me during the week, the possibility of appeasing two persnickety palates, all by myself, seemed unlikely.
The novelty of cooking out of a box – something Mom staunchly refused to do – and the curiously luminescent orange sauce first drew me to Kraft macaroni and cheese. But it was something else that turned me into a repeat user: That ready-made meal had a miracle ingredient capable of luring brother and sister from the TV to the dinner table in no time flat.
After I had completed four or five stints of weekend dinner duty, my mother stumbled onto an empty Kraft box and uncovered my shortcutting scheme. That’s when my formal cooking lessons began. With her faithful “Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book” in hand, Mom thumbed to the section on sauces, pointed to béchamel and motioned for me to read. One gentle nudge was all it took: My questionable culinary course had turned in a new and better direction.
Béchamel, also called white sauce, is a classic mother sauce, one of five foundational sauces in French cuisine. Similar to velouté, béchamel starts with roux, a 1-to-1 mixture of flour to butter that is cooked just a few minutes – long enough to eliminate its pasty taste, but short enough to keep it from browning. For every tablespoon of flour or butter, a cup of warm liquid is added to turn that roux into sauce.
To the point of adding the liquid, the methods for béchamel and velouté are identical, but here’s where they deviate: While velouté uses veal, poultry or fish stock for the liquid component, béchamel calls for milk so that the sauce becomes whiter and creamier than its stock-based cousin. Velouté also behaves differently as it cooks. The protein in the flour forms a grayish scum on top that most chefs painstakingly skim off to improve appearance and texture. Fortunately, there is no scum to worry about with béchamel. The protein matter put off from the flour gets trapped in the viscous milk, and no amount of skimming will separate the two. The use of milk has a downside, however. Milk is much more prone to scorching, so a watchful eye and regular stirring are especially important.
Even when I had mastered béchamel, I still couldn’t figure out quite what to do with it. Classic béchamel is flavored with a mirepoix (a fine dice of carrots, celery and onions that is cooked with the butter), yet it seemed too bland to lavish on any food. Everything finally made sense once I advanced to small sauces, those tasty offspring of mother sauces that have all sorts of goodies blended in.
I learned that Mornay sauce is made by adding a mixture of Gruyère and Parmesan cheeses, and aurore sauce gets its rosy hue from a hint of tomato paste or purée. It wasn’t long before I was blending the two into one yummy sauce, slathering it on noodles and calling the creation Julie’s Mac and Cheese. Though my dish was more pink than Kraft-luminescent orange, my sibs immediately gave it a big thumbs up.
Eventually, I graduated to soufflés. I knew they got their dramatic height from stiffly beaten egg whites folded into some kind of flavored base, but I was surprised to find out that, for savory versions, that base is often béchamel. In contrast to mac and cheese sauce, the béchamel for soufflé has to be very thick, more like paste than sauce. Mom recommended 1 cup of milk to every 3 tablespoons of flour or butter, and I have stuck with that ratio ever since.
When flavoring a béchamel for a soufflé, I also discovered that it is critical to restrict the quantity of added ingredients. For instance, cheese should be limited to 1 cup for every 1 cup of milk in the base. If the béchamel gets too heavy, it will weigh down the egg whites and lead to a less impressive rise. What’s more, never melt the cheese in the béchamel as you would for Mornay sauce, but rather stir it in, grated and off the heat. This extra precaution keeps the base very thick, which, in turn, makes it easier to evenly incorporate the egg whites.
Thanks to a single mother sauce (and my well-intentioned mother), my repertoire had rapidly expanded from one new dish to three. In fact, my Fluffy Soufflé-Omelet and Cheddar Cheese Sauce were so popular that Mom assigned me Saturday breakfast duty, too. Hmmm . . . could it be she had an ulterior motive for my cooking lessons, something other than correcting my Kraft mac and cheese faux pas?
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Gruyère, Pancetta and Thyme Soufflé
This recipe contains many of the same ingredients found in Tomato, Pancetta and Sage Macaroni and Cheese, just in soufflé format.
One 6-cup soufflé or about 4 servings
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
1 to 2 Tbsp. plain bread crumbs
¼ lb. pancetta, diced
½ cup diced yellow onion
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 cup milk, warmed
4 large egg yolks
5 large egg whites
2/3 cup finely grated Gruyère cheese
6 Tbsp. finely grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1½ Tbsp. finely chopped fresh thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Position the oven rack in the bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a 6-cup soufflé dish with 1 tablespoon butter and sprinkle the sides and bottom with a thin layer of bread crumbs. Tap out any excess crumbs.
• Place the pancetta in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. When the pancetta has rendered a few tablespoons of fat, increase the heat to medium-high. Cook until crisp, stirring regularly to prevent sticking. Remove the pancetta and discard all of the bacon fat.
• Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter in the same saucepan. When the butter has melted, add the onions and sauté until soft and slightly brown, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add the flour to create a roux. Return the roux to the heat and cook a few minutes, stirring regularly, until it is the color of straw, about 2 to 3 minutes. Gradually add the warm milk, whisking well until quite thick and smooth.
• After the mixture comes to a boil, remove the pan from the heat, cool slightly and whisk in the egg yolks one at a time. Add the grated Gruyère and 4 tablespoons of the Parmesan cheese. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper.
• Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whip attachment. Beat the whites on medium-high speed until they are stiff but not dry.
• Mix a quarter of the whipped egg whites into the yolk-cheese base, then gently fold in the remaining egg whites, thyme and reserved pancetta. Working quickly, spoon the mixture into the soufflé dish. Smooth the surface with a small offset spatula and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. (Avoid pouring or over-folding the soufflé mixture, as excessive handling can deflate the egg whites.)
• So that the top of the soufflé rises like a top hat, draw your index finger around the perimeter of the dish – about 1 inch from the side – to create a shallow channel in the soufflé surface.
• Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake the soufflé about 40 to 45 minutes until a skewer inserted deep into the side of the soufflé comes out clean. The top should be golden brown and firm to the touch. Serve immediately.
Tomato, Pancetta & Sage Macaroni & Cheese
(An adult version of Julie’s Mac and Cheese)
Makes about 10 8-oz. servings
10 oz. elbow macaroni
¼ lb. pancetta (Italian cured bacon), chopped into ½-inch pieces
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
¾ cup diced yellow onion
5 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
4 cups milk, warmed
1 lb. grated smoked Gouda or sharp Cheddar cheese, divided (I like to use a blend of the 2 cheeses.)
3 Tbsp. tomato paste
½ cup coarsely chopped, drained marinated (or oil-packed) sun-dried tomatoes
2 Tbsp. minced fresh sage (or to taste)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 to 3 Tbsp. plain bread crumbs
• Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Set aside a 3-quart round or 11-by-7-by-2-inch rectangular baking dish.
• Fill a large (6- to 7-quart) stock pot with 3 quarts lightly salted water. Bring the water to a boil over high heat. Add the macaroni and cook, uncovered, until al dente, that is, tender, but not soft or squishy. Drain the macaroni and rinse it under a gentle stream of water. Set it aside to fully drain.
• Meanwhile, place the pancetta in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. When the pancetta has rendered a few tablespoons of fat, increase the heat to medium-high. Cook it until crisp, stirring regularly to prevent sticking. Remove the pancetta and discard all but 1 tablespoon of the fat.
• Add 1 tablespoon unsalted butter to the pan and place the pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the chopped onions. Cook, stirring regularly, until the onions are soft, about 10 minutes. Combine with the reserved pancetta. Wipe the pan clean.
• Make a béchamel: Place the remaining 5 tablespoons of butter in the pan and melt it over medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat and add the flour, whisking well. Return to the heat and cook, stirring regularly, until the roux is the color of straw, about 2 to 3 minutes. Gradually add the warm milk, whisking frequently to prevent scorching and any lumps from forming.
• After the mixture has boiled and thickened slightly, reduce the heat to low. Add all but ¾ cup of the grated cheese. Cook until the cheese has melted, stirring as needed. Add the tomato paste, sun-dried tomatoes, sage and reserved pancetta and onions. Stir well. Season the mixture to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• Turn the drained macaroni into a large bowl and gently stir in the tomato-cheese sauce, making sure that all of the pasta is evenly coated. Adjust the seasoning.
• Spoon the mixture into the baking dish. Sprinkle the top with the bread crumbs and reserved ¾ cup grated cheese. Bake until the top is lightly browned and the cheese sauce is bubbling, about 30 to 35 minutes.
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