Béchamel Sauce, which I used in the previous post is one of the 5 mother or foundational sauces in classic French cooking. Growing up, I just knew it to be White Sauce, which was the basis for a bunch of recipes I was learning to cook from my mom. I’ve probably been making one version or another of this sauce since I was around 8 or 9 years old, so the muscle memory to cook it goes pretty deep.
The recipe below makes a thick consistency so that it works when you broil the Croque Monsieur/Madame. Other recipes will use a looser, more liquidy preparation.