white sauce

American  

noun

1. a sauce made of butter, flour, seasonings, and milk or sometimes chicken or veal stock; béchamel.

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white sauce British  

noun

1. a thick sauce made from flour, butter, seasonings, and milk or stock

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Etymology

Origin of white sauce

First recorded in 1715–25

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

white sauce

It's made with white sauce, cheese, ham and mustard, cooked under the grill.

From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2025

I make a really good one with red or white sauce, but my red sauce is the No. 1 thing on the menu.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 8, 2024

For other states, I propose white sauce for Alaska, cheese sauce for Wisconsin, and applesauce for Washington.

From Slate ● Jun. 23, 2023

Per a few Redditors, the pasta is best enjoyed with just butter and salt & pepper or white sauce or TJ's signature Autumnal Pasta Sauce.

From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2022

One Friday she finds herself alone in Dimitri’s apartment; he goes out as soon as she arrives, to buy a stick of butter for a white sauce he is making to pour over trout.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri