Béchamel sauce veal velouté with a large amount of cream added. Béchamel sauce Béchamel sauce (; ), also known as white sauce, is made from a white roux (butter and flour) and milk. It has been considered, since the seventeenth century, one of the mother sauces of French cuisine. It is used as the base for other sauces (such as Mornay sauce, which is Béchamel with cheese). Balsamell or Besciamella is the Italian equivalent of the French Béchamel: a very simple white sauce of flour, butter and milk. The sauce was originally from renaissance Tuscany and was known as "Salsa Colla or
Fat content of milk as "nonfat" milk, due to USDA regulations stating that any food with less than ½ gram of fat per serving can be labelled "fat free". In the U.S. and Canada, a blended mixture of half cream and half milk is called half and half. Half and half is usually sold in smaller packages and used for creaming coffee and similar uses. Three main varieties of milk by fat content are sold in the UK, "skimmed", "semi-skimmed" and "whole milk". Semi-skimmed is by far the most popular variety, accounting for 63% of all milk sales. Whole milk follows with 27% and