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Bechamel, Maigre

Use milk and water instead of the stock made with animal juices. Blend one ounce of flour with one ounce of butter. Simmer for twenty minutes the following ingredients in one pint of milk with half the quantity of water and a little salt; two or three small mushrooms, a few sprigs of parsley, two onions, and a blade of mace. When it has boiled long enough to acquire the desired flavour, strain and put it again into the stewpan with the flour and butter, keeping it stirred until perfectly smooth, then strain it again. Some cooks mix lemon-juice and yolks of eggs with Bechamel in order to enrich it. They accomplish their object and make the sauce richer, but they destroy its distinctive character, for by these additions they produce not Bechamel, but Allemande sauce. Cost, about 6d. per pint.