Sauce Chivry - Herbed Bechamel Recipe (video)

[Saviolo]

A little bit back to basics this week. We had already done a video on roux -> béchamel -> mornay sauce to make mac and cheese, but that video was mostly focused on the cheese sauce at the end. This one is really focusing on the béchamel sauce and making it as amazing and flavourful as it can be. Béchamel is one of Escoffier's "Mother Sauces" from which all other French sauces are derived. It is an incredibly rich and creamy sauce, and if handled correctly, can carry a lot of flavour. Technically what we're doing here is called a Sauce Chivry, which is an herbed béchamel.

He had an excellent locally produced dry vermouth to steep the fresh herbs in, but any dry vermouth will do. You do want to use fresh herbs if possible, though. The doubling down of the herbal aromas in this sauce really make it shine. It's extremely aromatic and, of course, very rich like most classic French cooking.

[Warpy]

1. Try this one, too

I've done this sauce, only I started with buttermilk and used less lemon juice. I think the result was likely the same. It's great party food, people can't stop eating it. I also reserved a little for salad dressing.

[Saviolo]

2. Looks nice!

Seems like it would definitely be a much lighter sauce for sure. Béchamel is such a rich and creamy sauce, though the herbal aromas really lift it.

[Warpy]

3. Bechamel has been my go to sauce for years

because there are so may amazing variations. The per calorie load in a couple of tablespoons of it isn't bad unless you put a lot of calorie laden stuff like cheese into it.

Milk is not my friend, so I've had to use cultured milk, kefir and yogurt all my life. This sauce would be a lot better with the buttermilk, IMO. You don't need the lemon, at all, buttermilk is tangy enough.