Cream sauce is a white or yellow condiment made with cream, often used on pasta, chicken, and fish. It can be flavored with herbs, spices, cheese, or tomatoes, and is made by melting butter, adding flour, hot milk, and cream.
A cream sauce is a savory condiment that is commonly used on pasta, chicken, and fish dishes. Since the main ingredient in the sauce is cream, it is usually white in color. Some cream sauces that incorporate cheese are deeper yellow or even slightly orange in color. Sometimes a cream sauce is made with tomatoes, and the resulting sauce is a savory but slightly spicy sauce with a pinkish color.
Cream sauce made without cheese or tomatoes usually has a mild flavor. Sometimes that flavor is accented with herbs or spices. The most commonly added ingredients other than tomatoes and cheese are garlic, chives, white pepper, ground black pepper, and parsley. Sometimes the sauce is accented with dill, which is especially common when used to complement fish entrees. A cream sauce can also be made for spicy dishes by adding dried red pepper flakes to the mixture.
Cooks only need a few basic ingredients for a cream sauce. Ingredients include two tablespoons (about 28 grams or 30 milliliters) of butter, two tablespoons (about 28 grams) of all-purpose flour, one cup (250 milliliters) of milk, one-third cup (about 80 milliliters) of heavy cream, and Salt to taste.
Before making the sauce, heat the milk in a separate pan. To begin making the cream sauce, first melt the butter in a skillet. Use medium heat and be sure not to brown or burn the butter. Add the flour and mix until well mixed with the butter without leaving any lumps. Once this is done, slowly add the hot milk.
Keep the mixture over medium heat and continue stirring until it begins to boil, at which point the cream sauce will begin to thicken. Then, reduce the heat to low and continue stirring as you let the sauce simmer for another 4 to 6 minutes. At this point, add the cream. If you are going to flavor the sauce with white wine, as many people like it, it should be added shortly after the cream.
This recipe makes between 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 cups (310 to 375 milliliters) of basic cream sauce. This recipe can be used to flavor a variety of dishes such as pasta, chicken and seafood dishes, and casseroles.
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