White sauce

25g baking fat/block

25g plain flour

300ml semi-skimmed milk

Saucepan, measuring jug, heat-resistant spoon, whisk (optional). 

1. Melt the baking fat in a saucepan over a medium heat. Pour in the flour off the heat and stir well.  This should make a thick paste. 
2. Cook paste for one minute or until it bubbles.
3. Slowly add a little milk off the heat. Bring to the boil.
4. Add a little more milk off the heat. Bring back to the boil again.
5. Continue to add the milk in this way, making sure the mixture boils each time, until all the milk has been used.
6. Taste and season with pepper if necessary.

• Turn up the flavour: To make a cheese sauce, add 75g grated cheese off the heat once the sauce is cooked. The heat of the sauce will melt the cheese.
• Food skills: Check out our food skills videos to help understand the key skills used in this recipe. 

Why not use the Explore Food calculator, the British Nutrition Foundation's free online nutritional analysis programme, to calculate the nutritional information for this and other Food - a fact of life recipes?