French on Sam's Recipes

Béchamel

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 01:00:39 -0400

Ingredients

2 Cups Whole Milk, plus more for consistency
1/2 Lemon (The Juice)
2 oz Butter (By Weight)
2 oz Flour (By Weight)

Instructions

In a small sauce pan melt the butter over medium heat and then whisk in the flour, it should form a paste. This is called Roux, pronounced like roo.
In a small sauce pan heat up the milk over medium heat.
When the milk is warn pour in half of the roux.
Mix frequently to combine.
Our goal is the consistency of a nice thick gravy. If you need it thicker add more roux, if you need to thin it out, add a little more milk
When you get the desired thickness, pass through a fine mesh strainer to remove any remaining chunks
Let cool before use.

Notes

I used to make Béchamel as part of my job at a steakhouse. I tried for MONTHS to nail a recipe down for this by weight and failed. After months of trial and error, I determined that the kitchen scale the restaurant had was inaccurate, or the local dairy milk we got varied its milk fat content too much. I think it was a little of both. Eyeing it lead to much more consistent results and thickness.
Watch your heat and don’t slack on stirring, if the roux burns , it will ruin your entire batch. There will be little specs everywhere that you can’t get out.
If done correctly, the sauce should be completely white, silky smooth, and while hot, the consistency of a nice gravy. When it cools it will thicken considerably but should still be pourable. That is what makes this sauce so hard.

Béarnaise Sauce

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 23:23:46 -0400

Ingredients

15 Egg yolks
2 lbs Butter
1 Shallot
3 Bunches of Tarragon
1/3 Cup White Wine, plus more for consistency
1/2 Lemon (The Juice)

Instructions

Clarify the butter. To do so but the butter in a cold sauce pan and put on medium heat. The butter will melt and a white foam will form on the top. Let it go and the white foam will fall to the bottom. Soon after that you will notice its no longer making steam, take it off the heat. Transfer to a different, metal container or pot to pull heat out of it quicker. Let it rest 10 minutes.
While its resting, separate 15 eggs. Put the yolks in the bowl of a food processor.
Brunoise, or very finely dice, a shallot. Add it to a small sauce pan with white wine. Reduce it down au sec, or until all liquid is gone.
Put the butter into something you can pour from, like a measuring cup or 1/6th pan, if it is not already.
Turn on the food processor with the egg yolks in it. Add in the lemon juice and let it process for about 20 seconds.
Start pouring the butter in, very slowly at first. After about 15 to 25 seconds you will see it start to thicken up and steam will form in the food processor. You can start adding the butter a little faster. If the butter starts to pool on top, stop and let the machine catch up. Try and pour the butter at the spot where the processor blade meets the center spindle. This will mix the butter better and cool it down slightly before it hits the egg.
Once all the butter is added, let it process for another 15 seconds and then stop the food processor.
It will probably be too thick, thin it out with a little white wine, mix with pulses of the food processor. Goal consistency is a nice thick gravy. It should be barely pourable.
Transfer into a serving dish or 1/6th pan. Add in the shallot mixture.
Finely dice the tarragon leaves and mix in. Add salt to taste, 2 good sized pinches of kosher salt always did it for me.

Notes

Read all of these steps before starting, once you hit step 5 you will need to focus and will not be able to read this.
This is the exact recipe the fine dining steakhouse I worked at used. At least this much was made and used, every single night.
The most common way this dish is ruined is too hot butter, or butter poured in too quickly. You need to temper the eggs or they will scramble. My trick with pouring in that specific spot always made it much easier. I could clarify the butter, transfer to a 6th pan, and then make the sauce in the processor within 5 minutes this way.

Vanilla Creme Brulee

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 21:35:47 -0400

Ingredients

2 cups heavy or light cream (or half-and-half)
1 Vanilla Bean, split lengthwise, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more for topping

Instructions

Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a saucepan, combine cream, vanilla bean and salt; cook over low heat just until hot. Let sit for a few minutes, then discard vanilla bean. (If using vanilla extract, add it now.)
In a bowl, beat yolks and sugar together until light. Stir about a quarter of the vanilla cream into this mixture, then pour sugar-egg mixture into cream and stir. Pour into four 6-ounce ramekins and place ramekins in a baking dish; fill dish with boiling water halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until centers are barely set. Cool completely. Refrigerate for several hours and up to a couple of days.
When ready to serve, top each custard with about a teaspoon of sugar in a thin layer. Tilt the dish so the sugar moves across the top and covers the entire surface. Tip the dish over so th extra sugar falls off.
Turn the Kitchen Torch on and start camelizing the sugar. Keep the torch moving in small circles and slowly cover the whole dish. Move on to the next area a little sooner than you think, the torch will continue to cook it as you work the next section.

Notes

Take your time combining the hot milk and eggs. Going too quickly will scramble the eggs and ruin the dish
After you fill the dishes, before you bake them, skim off any foam that forms. This will make the sugar stick better and lead to a nicer end result.
You will know they are ready to remove from the oven when you nudge the dish, the surface moves like gelatin. They shouldn’t brown at all.
Actually Brulee’ing the sugar takes practice, you might burn your first one if you have never done this before.