Am I the only one who CANT make a white sauce???

[Goldmonday]

Anything that required flour butter and milk I fuck up without failure every single time. Can someone please provide me with a good recipe and fool proof method to put an end to my kitchen disasters.

I just whisk in sauce flour. No butter. Perfect sauce.

50g flour
50g butter
500 ml milk

Put all into saucepan together, then on med heat. Whisk till thick and bubbly. Turn to lowest setting and leave for 5 mins.

whisk, season, done. works every time

I probably can't either, but I have made the choice of not trying!

Seriously, delia’s all in one method is fool proof. You can’t go wrong. It’s about 1/2 pint of milk, big dsp butter, big dsp flour. Put them all in the cold pan together and whisk them together while it comes to the boil, then simmer for 5 mins, whisking occasionally.

cornflour can be easier for some instead of flour

I add cornflour to cold milk and heat gradually, while stirring. Never goes wrong. Once it's to the desired thickness I add the other ingredients (butter, etc.).

Sorry, I meant whisking not stirring.

Don't bother with all this roux rubbish.

All in together, gentle heat, whisk constantly.

Microwave every time!
Also, warm the milk and if you want a really tasty sauce, heat the milk with half an onion, a carrot and a stick of celery. This is particularly nice if you are going to turn your white sauce into a mushroom sauce!

I don’t use a whisk, I use a hand blender. Zero lumps.

I agree with the just whisk and whisk until its smooth method too. I don't really measure, just use a tablespoon of butter. mix with a tablespoon of flour until it becomes a ball in the saucepan then pour in a cup of milk and whisk. I loosen it up with a bit more milk if needed but never stop whisking. However, since getting Jamie olivers Ministry of Food, I hardly ever make a white sauce- he uses Crème fraiche- Melt cheese in it for macaroni cheese, stick it in lasagna, use it in fish pie, everything. Not quite the same, but a tasty alternative IMO.

Butter and flour, but make sure you have more butter than flour: as it is cooking it should start to look like honeycomb or cinder toffee.

Much easier if the milk you add is HOT.

Remove from heat, Add in a few sloshes, and whisk, and whisk!

Use a huge balloon whisk .... yes it's a floury messy ball but add milk and keep stirring furiously 🤪

I can't believe you don't all get lumps. I spend ages trying to break down the lumps.

You don't need to dribble the milk in once you've cooked the flour and butter. Use moderate heat. Pour it in a third or so at time. It works fine.

Look on YouTube, Gordon Ramsay has a 1 1/2 minute video showing how to make a basic white sauce.

Christ, am I the only person who has never needed to make a white sauce in my life?

Put cold milk,then flour, then butter all in pan. Use a small balloon whisk and agitate it a little till most of the flour has disappeared. Then put it on a v gentle heat and stir continuously with the whisk,covering the bottom of the pan.

If you can't see any flour you can swap to a wooden spoon or spatula but you must keep stirring ,especially on the bottom of the pan... a zig zag pattern works well.

As the liquid heats up (slowly)the starch in the flour will absorb this and burst to form a gel. You need to stir more vigorously at this point until the sauce is bubbling ferociously. The starch is fully cooked and won't thicken any more so switch it off and take it off cooker. It doesn't need 5 minutes simmering.

Forget the roux method unless you like a challenge. I've taught Food Tech call it what you like for aeons and I promise that the above works. But don't rush it -sauces really don't like that!!

The thing about white sauce, is that it makes you THINK you've fucked it up! When in reality, it HAS to be lumpy dough to begin with then keep adding drips of milk and whisking like mad (on the heat) and adding more and more milk until the desired consistency is reached.

Melt butter first. Add flour, mix to almost like a dough consistency, stir with wooden spoon with heat still on. Then add few drops of milk, store then repeat until you can start using a whisk and then repeat until all lumps have gone. Foolproof

I melt the butter, add flour, stir and cook on hob until it bubbles a bit.

I then take it off the hob and add the cold milk bit by bit, whisking or stirring as I go.

Its important to only add small amounts of milk initially which creates a floury/buttery ball but just keep adding it bit by bit and stirring well.

Once all combined I put it back on the heat and stir occasionally until it thickens.

I find taking it off the hob allows more time to incorporate the milk properly and it rarely fails.

Of course if you do get the odd lump in the sauce you can always press it through a sieve to salvage it!

If it goes lumpy, just use a hand blender, one of those stick ones. Works every time!

Chickadee's method is foolproof. So easy to knock up macaroni cheese or Lasagne now! Start with cold milk, works every time!

I just put the milk and butter in together and then add cornflour that I have mixed in a small jug with a little milk. I never measure anything and never get lumps.

wayfarers have a go and you can add other stuff to the basic sauce like finely grated cheese and grainy mustard. Nice chucked on other food.

I also whisk a couple of tbsp's to cold milk, then it's just a case of stirring (without stopping) whilst heating until it thickens, if it's too thick slowly stir in a bit more milk or water, if too runny , remove from heat, pre mix a tsp of cornflour to water and stir in, add to heat & repeat until consistency is to your liking. Add cheeses for cheesy sauce and S&p to taste after.