Homemade white sauce is so easy to prepare and once you learn how to make it, you'll find yourself using it or the base of it (a roux) quite frequently in cooking from scratch.
I'm all for a good shortcut, but white sauce is one of those things that tastes so much better when it's made from scratch. It's worth taking a few minutes to prepare it yourself.
★ Why You’ll Love this Recipe ★
No more cream of ____ canned sauces.
I have a few recipes that do call for these cream-of sauces for convenience but to be honest when I make these recipes, I usually make my own sauce because it's easy and you get more flavor, less preservatives and typically lower sodium.
So, I thought it was time I shared with you how to make a white sauce too so you have the option to make your own cream sauces.
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
You'll need just 3 basic ingredients to make a white sauce.
- Butter. You can use salted or unsalted. If using unsalted, you will need to add additional salt. This allows you to adjust the level of salt you use to suit your taste or dietary restrictions.
- Flour. All purpose flour is what you need. You can use gluten-free flour if you need your sauce to be gluten-free.
- Milk. You can use any liquid to thin out your flour + butter combination to form a sauce, but milk is what's typically used in a classic white sauce. Any percentage works, so you can choose according to your preference.
★ How to Make White Sauce ★
Here are the basic steps. You can check out the full recipe and how-to below, this is just a quick overview.
- Melt butter.
- Whisk in flour.
- Let bubble.
- Whisk in milk.
- Season with nutmeg (optional) and salt.
That's it! It's very simple and easy to pull off making your own white sauce. Just follow the detailed directions below.
★ Tips & FAQs ★
★ Beyond the Basic White Sauce ★
Use Your Roux to Create Other Sauces
When you've mastered how to make a roux and turn it into a delicious sauce by adding a liquid, then you can experiment and branch out almost indefinitely.
Once you learn how to make a basic white sauce, you can take these same roux-making skills to the next level but adding herbs, cheese, or bullion to transform it into stews, gravy, Alfredo sauce and more!
Here's how to take your roux and sauces beyond a basic white sauce:
- Brown your butter by cooking it longer to achieve that nutty flavor. This transforms your white sauce to a brown-butter sauce.
- Try different fats other than butter. You can use leftover meat drippings from bacon, or even ground beef. You can also try vegetable-based fats like avocado oil.
- Add cheese to your white sauce. Melting in Parmesan cheese creates an awesome homemade Alfredo sauce.
- Adding cheddar cheese creates a wonderful cheese sauce for mac and cheese.
- Add white American cheese and you have the start of a yummy queso dip!
The amount of cheese you add is totally customizable. I typically start with 1-2 tablespoon of fresh grated cheese per every 1 cup of milk but you can do less or more depending on how cheesy you like your sauce. You can also add more milk to thin out your sauce. - Instead of or in addition to adding milk to your roux, try adding other liquids.
For example, adding chicken broth creates a lovely chicken gravy. Beef broth for a beef gravy. And so on. This can be used as gravy, or a base for stews as well as fillings for things like pot pies.
★ More Recipes You'll Love ★
Here are a few of my favorite recipes that incorporate some variation of a white sauce:
• Parmesan Shrimp Alfredo
• Oven-fried Ham Steaks
• Creamed Spinach
Browse all my recipes and Pin your favorites
This tutorial for how to make white sauce was featured on South Your Mouth!
How to Make White Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoon flour
- 1 cup milk
- salt and black or white pepper to taste
Optional
- pinch of ground nutmeg more or less to taste
Mighty Mrs. is a #WalmartPartner.
Instructions
- In a small sauce pot, melt butter over medium heat.
- As soon as butter is completely melted, whisk in flour. Let bubble for 1 minute to cook out the floury taste. Do not let the butter turn brown. Stir as needed.
- Next, whisk in milk. Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer. Whisk until thickened and smooth.
- Add salt and nutmeg (optional) to taste.
Video
Notes
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Isabel Mguni says
This is amazing guys keep on doing well. I love the way you present and garnish your food.
Jan says
Thank you - I am the worst cook and only have a few dishes I can make - simple pasta dishes and shepherdโs pie - which I make with lentils. Iโve made lasagna twice now and followed your white sauce recipe and Iโm so pleased how it came out.
Thank you for simple, straightforward instructions- and measurements. I can make a white sauce!
Angela G. says
That's so great, Jan! Congrats on learning how to make one of the mother sauces! You can make a delicious gravy using this concept too! Check out my rotisserie chicken gravy (also very easy!)