Bechamel Sauce Not Tasty & Thick Enough for Lasagne

[irridium]

What can I do to make it nice and creamy tasting? I use roux and hot FF milk gradually poured in and it's usually too bland and thin. How do I get it to the same creamy yumminess that you see in restaurants? I've had to resort to buying a jar of white sauce and added in two tubs of soft cheese and mixed in with cooked tomatoes and leeks to make taste of something.

@irridium I will go against the vast majority here, but you can just skip butter and oil and do a light bechamel by warming up milk and then adding flour to it from above (as if it were light rain) and whisk it until completely absorbed. Then continue stirring with a wooden spoon for 5-10 minutes. You then start composing your lasagne- no need to pre-boil the pasta if it is good quality. Just have a bottom layer of bechamel and add your first layer of pasta to it.

I know the above sounds heretic to English ears and probably some traditionalist Italian ones too, but it is what many Italians do nowadays. It much healthier, faster and more practical than a roux-based bechamel. The cheese is grated between the layers of pasta, no need to bother with it in the bechamel as well. Adds to calories without much additional taste.

Butter and cream for flavour and texture.

Cornflour to thicken. Mix the cornflour into a slurry with a dash of water or milk before adding.

@WestCorkGal @PastTheGin Can soft cheese work or does that not have the right flavour/texture as ricotta? (I want to save on costs where I can.)

@Comedycook No-one else has suggested adding egg yolks before, but I've seen some Greek dish like a mousakka that has this in. It does make sense by adding some creaminess/richness to it.

"adding flour to milk until it thickens" sounds terribly controversial to me as I've never heard/seen this before. I shall have to test it out one day (not in my dish tomorrow in case it goes wrong.)

What amounts are you using? Sounds like too much liquid for the roux, or you're not bringing it to boil to thicken, maybe?

I use 50g butter or oil, 50g flour, and approx 500ml milk to make a thick white sauce.
To try to save and thicken what you already have, add some cornflour slurry, bring to a slow boil, then simmer til thickened.

Are you letting it simmer at the end, for a good 5 mins? If not, this will be why it doesn’t taste nice.

I've had success using flour (as well as cornflour) to thicken milk without making a roux, too, so this could work if you feel confident not to leave any lumps.

I make a cheese sauce for mine now and it's so much tastier

Sounds like you're simply adding too much milk
And always use butter, not oil. You can't use oil and expect it to taste creamy !

Anyone do gluten free, I always find I have to par cook the pasta and because it sticks together I do one sheet at a time, any tips appreciated.

Eggs are good to add if you want the sauce to set, as with mousaaka, but I personally wouldn't add it to a normal white sauce.

Key thing with a coating roux is enough fat/flour.

Sounds like you are just adding too much milk! Put a little less in, add it slowly and stop when it’s about the right consistency

Dont par boil buy the fresh sheets from Tesco or asda.much nicer.

Add a thick slice of onion, bay leaf and nutmeg to the full fat milk. Simmer and leave to stand for 30 minutes. Make your roux and then add the milk with the infused ingredients sieved out

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/simple-lasagne.html

I made this last week - thick bechamel sauce resulted. (I used full not semi skimmed.) Just added salt and pepper and nutmeg - I meant to put wholegrain mustard in but decided against and it was tasty. Also no parboiling sheets, they soak up the moisture from the tomato sauce. Only thing I did differently was the cheese, used what we had and didn't weigh, just whacked it on.

I haven't parboiled lasagne sheets for years. The cooking time in the oven is enough, with the sauce from the mince and the roux.
I never put cheese in my bechamel. Bog standard roux with butter and flour (not oil), pour in the milk. Stir so no lumps then season.

For any roux I'll use the same masses of butter and flour 40g each, depends how much you want to make and how thick. With Bechamel I've often used powdered bay to increase the intensity of the flavour.

The oil was bad but cinnamon & cumin in bolognese?! @irridium is it a wind up?

• Oil is never appropriate for a roux. Butter, flour, hot milk is the only recipe you need. Flavour it with parmesan cheese for a wonderful flavour !
• When making for 6 servings I use 7 tablespoons butter,6 tablespoons plain flour, 3 ½ cups full cream milk, heated just until steaming. When the roux is finished, add about a cup of grated parmesan and beat until the cheese is fully mixed in.
• Assemble the lasagne when the ingredients are still hot.
• You can freeze it ! I freeze two lasagnes at a time ( fully assembled) and then defrost and cook for about 40 minutes when I need them. Enjoy !

I generally use butter, but have had success with oil when I've made enchilada sauce (oil and flour and tomato puree as a roux).

I mentioned oil as, with the CoL crisis, oil might be they only option available to some people. It may not be ideal, but it can work.

agreed, while butter will provide a nicer flavour than oil, the fact it's oil rather butter isn't a reason why the bechamel would fail to thicken. And the flavour advantage of butter isn't going to make or break a lasagne which should have cheese and a delicious ragu taking centre stage, especially since OP is using full fat milk there will be sufficient creaminess.

I always let mine sit now after I did accidentally and the pasta cooked so much better!
also are you adding in all the milk at once or adding in gradually

I infuse the milk with a bayleaf, a sprig of thyme, a little onion or shallot and a knob of butter. Put it in a pyrex jug, heat it in the microwave, leave it to sit.

I have also had good results with the new method of not making a roux at all - mix the butter and flour together in a blender to a loose crumb, then gradually add the (cooled, infused) milk so that everything forms a smooth runny batter. Then cook that gently in a saucepan, stirring with a whisk as it thickens. Pretty foolproof.

Bechamel hack - if you shop with Ocado, use the Parmalat products - great for macaroni cheese, or lasagne. I just add mustard powder and jobs a good 'un!