cheesy béchamel & Mornay sauce

2017-05-04 a.o.

Béchamel by itself is fairly bland. Adding cheese goes a long way to increase appetites.

Mornay sauce is a béchamel sauce with added cheese and egg yolks.

There seems to be some confusion about these 2 names. Many internet recipes call cheesy béchamel Mornay sauce without ever mentioning eggs.

Béchamel and cheesy béchamel are very nice as sauces with a meal, but they don't hold up very well during prolonged oven-cooking. They separate and get all watery. Adding that extra egg helps to keep the sauce thicker. Ever since I found this out, I've always used Mornay sauce instead of regular béchamel for oven-baked dishes.

Take note that I used the same amounts of flour and oil as for regular béchamel sauce, but only half the amount of milk. The purpose is to get this sauce as thick as possible.

 

Pic1: cauliflower with cheesy béchamel — 2017-05-04
Pic2: Mornay sauce over endive ham rolls — 2019-10-08

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 3 cups:

béchamel sauce

  • 1 pt. milk, warm
  • 3 tbsp. butter / olive oil
  • 3 tbsp. flour
  • S&P, nutmeg

Mornay sauce

  • 1 pt. béchamel sauce
  • 1-2 egg yolks
  • 1 cup shredded melting cheese
    preferably Gruyere / Parmesan mix
  • optional:
    • cayenne pepper to taste

Directions

béchamel sauce:

  • Melt the butter.
  • Stir in the flour. Simmer but do not let brown.
  • Gradually add the milk and bring to a boil over medium heat while stirring constantly.
  • Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.
  • Add S&P and nutmeg to taste.

cheesy béchamel

 

Pic2: chop / grate cheese
Pic3: add cheese
Pic4: melt cheese

Cheesy Béchamel:

Mornay sauce

 

Pic5: add egg & cheese
Pic6 sauce thickens, a lot
Pic7: Mornay sauce

Mornay sauce: