Bechamel

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 1 quart

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan, stir in the flour with a wooden spoon, and cook for less than a minute over a tiny flame before beginning to add the milk, very slowly at first, stirring rapidly the while to prevent lumping (should lumps form, it is no disaster: Finish adding the milk, bring it to a boil, strain it, whisk, and put it back to cook). After further additions of milk, turn the