Sauce Mornay
This homemade cheese sauce recipe is the best and can transform a simple dish into a creamy delight! How often have you wished for something tasty to go with a plain vegetable dish or chicken or fish dish, this sauce recipe is it! The French call this, "sauce mornay" and it is so delicious, you will want to save it in your recipe collection to have it handy!
It is very much like the French béchamel sauce, the basic white sauce which you need for the basis of many dishes.
In France of course they use a good French cheese such as Gruyere but you can use any good hard cheese such as a Parmesan or indeed a good Swiss cheese, whatever you like or have in your pantry. You can even use half and half of any cheese you have, so never wasting any!
Of course we are talking about hard cheeses, not the soft variety which are not suitable for this sauce.
A blue cheese is also good for this recipe and the sauce is just sheer heaven - that is if you like blue cheese - it is one of those tastes you either love or hate.
It is also a great accompaniment for any of your favourite pasta dishes, just try pouring some over a dish of warm pasta with a sprinkling of black pepper, it's very satisfying.
Do not allow the sauce to boil once the cheese has been added as this will affect the creaminess and it may result in a hard mess!
What To Serve This Sauce With
You can serve this cheese sauce recipe with poached chicken or fish like Poached Salmon, cooked vegetables or you can mix it with cooked vegetables and put them into an oven dish and sprinkle with breadcrumbs and bake in the oven - this is how you make a gratin!
More Handy Sauces
- Bearnaise Sauce is a smooth fresh herb-flavored sauce that is good with beef steaks, fish, chicken, vegetables, and even egg dishes.
- This Hollandaise Sauce recipe will give you a rich creamy sauce used mainly as an accompaniment for fish, asparagus and egg dishes.
- The best Bechamel Sauce is a basic white sauce, so tasty and versatile.
📖 Recipe
The Best Homemade Cheese Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1¼ oz butter
- 1 oz plain flour
- ½ - ¾ pt hot liquid not boiling this may be all milk, part milk, vegetable liquid, or white stock. If it is to be a coating sauce, use smaller amounts of liquid to make it thicker and if a medium sauce use more liquid to make it thinner.
- 4 oz 100g grated hard cheese such as Parmesan, or cheddar, or a mixture of hard cheeses.
- Pinch of grated nutmeg
- Pinch of white pepper
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a heavy based saucepan over a low heat.
- Add the flour and stir with a small balloon whisk.
- Cook for a few minutes without browning (this is called the roux).
- Remove the pan from the heat and add all the liquid, whisking continually until well blended. (A balloon whisk is ideal for this purpose and you never get any lumps!)
- Bring to a boil then immediately simmer over low heat for at least five minutes.
- Gradually sprinkle in your grated cheese and mix thoroughly.
- Add a little grated nutmeg and white pepper to taste.
Did you make this & like it, or not, let us know?!