Mornay sauce

A Mornay sauce is a béchamel sauce with shredded or grated cheese added. Some variations use different combinations of Gruyère, Emmental cheese, white cheddar or even Parmesan cheese. A Mornay sauce made with cheddar is commonly used to make macaroni and cheese.

Etymology

The name origin of Mornay sauce is debated. It may be named after Philippe, duc de Mornay (1549–1623), Governor of Saumur and seigneur du Plessis-Marly, writer and diplomat, but a cheese sauce during this time would have to have been based on a velouté sauce because béchamel had not yet been developed. According to other theories, the sauce was named after the Duke of Mornay in the late 1600s. However, the original mornay sauce came into existence before Béchamel sauce, so the original version of the cheese sauce that the Duke was given to eat was likely different than the contemporary version.

Sauce Mornay does not appear in Le cuisinier Royal, 10th edition, 1820, perhaps because sauce Mornay is not older than the seminal Parisian restaurant Le Grand Véfour, where sauce Mornay was introduced.

In the Tout-Paris of Charles X, the Mornay name was represented by two stylish men, the marquis de Mornay and his brother, styled comte Charles. They figure in Lady Blessington's memoir of a stay in Paris in 1828–29, The Idler in France. They might also be considered, when an eponym is sought for sauce Mornay.

Ingredients

Mornay sauce is a silky sauce usually made from butter, all-purpose flour, milk, cloves, onion, bay leaf, grated Gruyère cheese and grated Parmesan cheese, kosher salt as needed, and ground pepper

Nutritional facts

See also

• Cheese sauce
• Croque-monsieur
• French mother sauces
• Welsh rarebit
• List of sauces

References

External links

• Sauce Mornay at the Wikibooks Cookbook subproject

1. Béchamel sauce
2. Chasseur (sauce)
3. Cheddar sauce
4. Florentine (culinary term)
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