Seasoning the Sauce, Not Just the Protein

The single most common reason a pie or gratin tastes flat is that the salt is in the wrong place. Seasoning the protein — the fish, the chicken, the meat — will season the protein, but it will not season the sauce, and the sauce is usually most of what you taste. The béchamel, velouté or cream reduction is the dominant volume in a fish pie, a creamy chicken pie, a lasagne. Build the salt, pepper and warm spice (a grating of nutmeg, a pinch of white pepper) into the sauce itself and taste the sauce on a spoon — not the meat — before combining. It should taste slightly over-seasoned on its own, because the protein will mute it once folded through. Acid — a squeeze of lemon, a splash of wine — belongs in the sauce too. Get the sauce right and the whole dish reads seasoned.