White Sauce, Home & Restaurant Economics

Shuffling through old recipes, I found this chart from a home economics class from years ago. It's a chart to make white sauce. Below, I typed up a much clearer chart for you.

White sauce is one of the mother sauces. That means it's a basic sauce that can be transformed into other sauces. Add 1 cup grated cheese to the finished sauce and Voila! you have cheese sauce.

To make the sauce, melt butter in medium sized pan over low heat.  Add flour and salt. Whisk until combined. Continue whisking and cooking for 3 - 5 minutes. Slowly add the milk which has been scalded (heated).  Turn the heat up to medium. Whisk all together and continue cooking a few minutes or until of a smooth consistency. Take off heat. If there are any lumps, strain before using.

We'll revisit Madame White Sauce again. We'll see what other talents she has to share with us.

White sauce has been a staple in kitchens for generations. That was before some restaurant owner figured out if he called it béchamel he could charge five more dollars for it.

(If the chart is too small, double click on it.)

Triple Cranberry Sauce

Just in time for Thanksgiving!

Here's a cranberry sauce recipe that's easy to make, yet complex in flavor. It uses a trick many restaurants use. By including an ingredient in its many forms, the flavor is intensified. This cranberry sauce uses fresh cranberries, dried cranberries and cranberry juice. It packs a lot of flavor and nutrition at only 50 calories per two tablespoon serving. All the ingredients are found easily at any grocery store.

If you can boil water, you can make this dish. You'll never want store bought again.

Triple Cranberry Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup cranberry juice cocktail
1 cup sugar
1 (12-ounce) package fresh or frozen cranberries, rinsed and drained
½ cup dried cranberries

DIRECTIONS:

Combine juice cocktail and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil; add both types of cranberries, return to boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover and cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until serving time.

Makes 2 1/4 cups.