To think that when you make a spag bol

[HelloCanYouHearMe]

You fry the mince off first?!

DP rarely cooks & tonight has decided to do spag bol and is following a Jamie Oliver recipe (which in itself is U afaic)

The recipe has him frying off onion, celery, carrot, garlic... so far, so good. Then it goes on to say to throw in the minced beef & 2 cans to tomatoes, water from 2 cans and simmer for an hour.

The hour is up & DP asked me to taste - the casserole dish is swimming in liquid & tbh all i can taste is powdery boiled mince

I don't. I made two vast pots of ragu this week with 6lb of mince and I don't brown anything other than the onion and garlic. It cooks in my slow oven for 6 hours and is delicious.

Bleargh. So you're having boiled mince. Yum.

Sling an oxo cube in it. Might help.

I was fed boiled mince lasagne by my cousin over Christmas. I coped, but I don't think my (Italian chef) husband will ever recover.

i brown it, then tip out the fat

boiled mince comment was to OP.

Try adding a teaspoon of Marmite to help, it gives a more "beefier" flavour. Haters of Marmite don't notice it either :)

That does sound like a weird way of doing spag bol, yes. Has he definitely read the recipe correctly? Or could there be a line missing from it?

I must confess that I really hate Jamie Oliver, so irrationally refuse to cook his recipes.

Vintage.

I buy minced steak from my butcher, he minces a load of steak in front of me, very little fat.

Yep.... im having boiled mince tonight & tomorrow night too apparently.

Ive had slow cooked spag bol before and it was horrible... this hasnt been slow cooked and its grim

But i cant say anything cos DP tried and was so proud

I've followed other Jamie recipes (beef stew, I think?) where he's described how he's stopped browning meat for stews as he thinks it tastes better. But yeah, I'd imagine with mince it's much nicer when fried off first.

(Found the link - www.bigoven.com/recipe/joolss-favourite-beef-stew-by-jamie-oliver/170023)

That sounds rank.
I base mine on Delia's rage, but use slow cooked brisket in place of mince.

Ragu, not rage!

My friend's ex once made spag bol by cooking mince with the lid on (WTF is the point of that, browning = flavour!) and then added raw, chopped onion to the mix

Definitely brown the meat

I've never fried mince, it's not boiled unless you only add water. I add passata or tinned tomatoes plus veg and let it simmer. Always tastes nice.

You brown the mince - otherwise you just have boiled mince- eurggghhh!

Get rid of all the water, chuck Oxo cubes and Worcestershire sauce in it like there's no tomorrow, anything you can find with flavour - a bit of balsamic vinegar, anything.

Why all the water as well? I have soffrito, mince, wine, tomatoes. No wonder it tastes watery

dolly I double checked the recipe and there is no mention of browning the mince

Id tweet JO to ask what the hell he was thinking, but the last time i tweeted him it did not end well may have called him a sanctimonious prick

The JO bolognese is lovely I follow the recipe but use slightly less water and also add an oxo cube. Must admit I was a bit dubious the first time I didn't brown the mince but it tasted lovely. Your DH did add salt & pepper & all required herbs?

Add tomato puree and more herbs

I've made that Jamie Oliver recipe, the two cans of water is way too much, you need a quarter of one can.

Maybe that's why Jamie Oliver is having to close restaurants.

Yes, try and pump it up while DH isn't looking. More salt might help. Worcester sauce?

What a damn shame when he's tried his best

The purpose of browning the meat is to get the flavour of browned meat (lovely umami thanks to the Maillard reaction). So you are missing out on some flavour by not frying first but if cooked for long enough it shouldn't have that bad an effect.

It's not "boiled mince" if you are slow cooking it in tomatoes etc for several hours, but two hours isn't long enough for a bolognese. Four at minimum in this house; six, ideally.

Ive managed to reduce the liquid but the oxo cube and puree have done nothing.

I refuse to put worcester sauce anywhere near a spag bol, even when it tastes as bad as this

Could you try taking the mince out wuth a slotted spoon, frying it with some seasoning and meanwhile boiling the hell out of the sauce with the lid off to reduce it a bit?