Retro Recipes: Classic White Sauce

I love cooking, and I love collecting recipes.  Lots of us have recipe boxes that we’ve inherited – I have my grandmother’s, and my husband’s grandmother’s.  I also have a few of these little recipe boxes that I use for storing things like post cards or note cards.  They’re really sturdy since they’re metal, and they come in all sorts of fun patterns like this green daisy print.

I picked these two boxes up at a home in the Pittsburgh suburbs, and when I looked at them more closely I saw one still had a few recipes inside.  I thought it would be fun to feature some classic recipes on this blog, and this seems like a great place to start.

This box only has a handful of recipes in it – but a few of them have one thing in common: white sauce.  There’s a recipe for eggs and peas on toast – covered in white sauce.  There’s a recipe for ham and cheese – covered with white sauce or cheese sauce.  What’s in the cheese sauce?  White sauce and cheese.  Clearly, this recipe was this homemaker’s staple dish!

I appreciated the final instruction on the card – “Add Whatever”.  My whatever turned out to be asparagus tossed with parsley, Parmesan, garlic, and lemon, served over pasta with lots of pepper.  Asparagus tastes like spring, doesn’t it?

Following the instructions was easy, because yes, this is a basic glossy white sauce!  I made a roux from butter and flour, added milk (I used soy milk) – and yep.  White sauce.  I blanched the asparagus in boiling water for a few minutes, and then tossed it with herbs, cheese, lemon zest and juice. The whole thing turned out pretty good!  Probably better than eggs and peas on toast, at least.

If you’re interested in recreating more of this lady’s inspired cuisine, you can purchase these recipe boxes here in our Etsy shop.

 White Sauce

4 Tbs Marg
2 Cups Milk
4 Tbs Flour
Salt to Taste

Over low heat – melt marg. Slowly add flour – stirring constantly – add milk – increase heat – bring to boil – reduce heat to low – add whatever