Melt a knob of butter. Remove from heat. Stir in flour. Put back on heat, and stir for a moment. Add a little bit of milk, and remove from heat, and stir until it's a smooth paste. Put back on heat, add more milk, whisk, add more milk, whisk more, add more milk again, whisk even more. Heat to not-boiling, stirring all the time[mew], and keep on a very low heat, still stirring, for a few minutes more.
[mew] At this point, you add your parsley or cheese or whatnot. For onion sauce, you saute the onions in the butter way back at step one.
There is another error - that's heating too quickly, especially at the early stages - recipe for LUMPS, that is. If you heat it slowly enough it's lump-free all the way. Also, scalding the milk when adding the first few splashes can lead to potential curdling.
It's pretty reliable, though. I remember arguing with the HE teacher when we were learning sauces because she was teaching another way (chuck everything in and whisk like a maniac) and I said my way was better.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-31 01:57 pm (UTC)[mew] At this point, you add your parsley or cheese or whatnot. For onion sauce, you saute the onions in the butter way back at step one.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-31 02:06 pm (UTC).
(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-31 02:12 pm (UTC)It's pretty reliable, though. I remember arguing with the HE teacher when we were learning sauces because she was teaching another way (chuck everything in and whisk like a maniac) and I said my way was better.