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

joy

Wait. I shall translate mine (however, I never had to write that down, so, yeah).

1. Either pick tomatoes from the garden or buy fresh ones and make sugo, cook the sugo loooong on a little fire. Put in jars and then take put it away and then take out the sauce to the kitchen when you need it to cook (I never do it like that!). If you do it like that the recipe is a bit different. It's really nice, my grandmother makes it like that. Or you can use fresh tomatoes.

1. Or you go to the supermarket and buy tomatoes (like, in a can. But not with spices...) that's what I do. You need the same amount of flesh and canned tomatoes. That's the easiest... you don't need to prepare any tomatoes.

1. Take a carrot, sedano... (English? Green leaves with a scent) and a white onion. You can decide to not use the rest if you don't want the vegetables, but use the onion. If you make a lot of ragù you need more carrots and onion (I'm Captain obviously I know...). Many people don't use the sedano, cut it in small pieces. I sometimes also add leek. But that's just because we all love leek, shrug. Chop the veggies.

Olive oil, pan, veggies on the fire (little fire) and stir. (Some people also add mortadella or salsiccia or pork belly. Maybe bacon would work? You can be a bit creative)

Put in the meat (beef pig mix, it should be lean. But just beef works if you eat kosher or halal for example) and rosemary the flame should be higher now.
Let it cook for abit. Then add red wine. When the wine is gone one add the pepper and the salt.
Wait. Then make the fire little again.
Put on a cooking top. Now... it depends on your tomatoes. It's different if they're fresh or of it's precooked sugo. But I'm lazy, so, it's canned... (I'm really really lazy...😂), so wait for two- three hours. You can get away if one if you don't have time anymore, but it's not as good. You add some broth in this time of waiting. just open the top to see when it's needed and stir it etc... and then it's done!

However, if you aren't lazy and use fresh tomatoes or make your own tinned tomatoes... well, I tip my hat to you. And hope that we meet in real life and I get to eat your food

Can you fix a bit with beurre manié(flour+butter)?

Brown mince and pancetta in cast iron casserole (no oil needed).

Blitz onion, peppers, garlic, celery in food processor. Add to browned meat.

Add toms, herbs, red wine, beef stock cube, salt and pepper, plus some grated nutmeg.

Cook in low oven (c. 140) for 4 hours.

My version of Bolognese is as follows:

Fry unsmoked pancetta cubes in a little oil
Once browned, removed the pancetta from the pan with a slotted spoon
Fry a couple of white onions, some fresh rosemary and 1or 2 cloves of garlic in the bacon fat
Once the onions are soften and translucent, remove from pan and set aside with the pancetta
In the same pan, add a little more oil and fry off the mince so that it cooks all the way through (I sometimes do this in batches if making a large amount as I don't like the mince boiling, it must be fried)
Once the mince is done, add a glass of good red wine to deglaze the pan
Add the onions and pancetta
Add a couple of tins of good tomatoes and simmer for a few hours on the stove
Shortly before serving I remove the lid to reduce the sauce and occasionally add a slug of milk to enrich

Tis nice even if I do say so!

Oh, and you really really need lean meat. Or else it's just not nic...

For a basic spag Bol, I brown the mince, add the onion and then once they are cooked, add chopped tomatoes, red wine and beef stock and simmer.
I also often add mushrooms/ coursettes/ peppers/ carrots or parsnips too.
And if it is too runny a spoonful of cornflour.

yep - brown it and tip out excess fat

ghost Why is it gross if you don't drain the fat? That's where all the flavour is and if you have got onions in with the mince, they soak it all up. Someone upthread seemed to think the sauce would be slimy with it in - bizarre!

As for the rinser - don't get me started!

I cook this JO recipe and his chilli but brown the mince and add a tiny amount of water to both as they have far too much water in the recipes.

harry

I don't rinse it either. Shrug.

Why would you tip out the fat? I don't add any extra oil in the first place so there is no need.

Both my uber traditional Italian Godmother and sibling's Italian Godmother (different families from different regions) brown off the meat after the initial soffrito and before adding the liquid. They also use milk as a key part of the liquid and would shudder at the idea of cooking it for less than 2-3 hours.

I have no idea why I can recall this so vividly - I'm a veggie .

Because of all the fat. I'm fat enough I just think it's gross. For me that is others may fone with it. Maybe different mince. Different tastes etc.

It wouldn't occur to me not to brown the mince, it's not that big a deal when you've done the onions (maybe carrots and bacon too) and is the best way to break up the mince so you don't get long strings or clumps of it in the finished product. I find longer cooking means you get a nice, integrated sauce, too short and it's mince floating about in a tomato sauce. Ick.

I don't know what would possess anyone to choose the JO Ministry of Food rags recipe out of all the ones out there. The photo in the book is fucking repulsive, beige mince sitting on a pile of spaghetti with greasy orange water everywhere. OP you might want to warn DP you don't want the mince Wellington either, as that also looks gopping.

If you need to drain off fat, then frankly you need to buy better quality meat!

Italian (chef) dp says this is real bolognaise:

finely chopped onion (a very small amount, you should NOT be able to taste anything oniony or find chunks of it) ditto celery and carrot. It's a "soffritto"- there to add flavour, not texture.
Brown your mince, well, and add a glug of red wine, stir round till wine has evaporated. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes if you have no good quality passata (you do not want the ketchupy stuff in tetra brik packs but proper bottled salsa- otherwise just use good quality tins) half a tin of water and lots of salt. A beef stock cube is always good but if the meat is good quality you don't need it. Italians would generally use a mixture of pork and beef mince. (He maintains British cooking would improve tenfold simply by adding salt to stuff) Bit of basil if you have it.
Cook for a long time- as long as you have.

That's it. Now't fancy. Like most Italian dishes.

Serve with tagliatelle or papardelle because of course, there is no such thing as spag bol. (I ignore him on this because I am not keen on the pasta-y-ness of egg pasta. He says I am a heathen)

And you must mix the pasta with the sauce, not sit it in the middle.

I brown the mince, drain the fat, crumble a dry oxo cube onto the mine (that was a JO tip I read in a magazine once and makes a big difference) and stir it in well, add jar of bolognase sauce, Asda own, garlic pepper and sometimes grate a carrot very finely into the sauce. 20 minutes later and boom. Had compliments although I've noticed the sauce seems watery lately so I probably need to make my own but after reading this thread I'm massively confused as to how to do that!

Gah

I use chicken livers, pork and beef mince, pancetta and cook for around 6hrs

I believe boiled mince is the least of our worries with whatever your husband is preparing. I think sticking the batch you have in the oven with lid off for about 4 hours will make a huge huge improvement. Move the caramelised bits into the sauce 1/2 hourly.
Praise him - remember what it was like to learn to cook and remember that many people might feel the same way about your dishes as you do your husband's

I have used mince that hasn't been browned previously (I do think lot has to do with the quality of the mince and therefore the amount of water that comes from it ) and have used it at the shimmer stage of the sauce so that the meat is tenderised. You can lose a certain something from the browning effect but it can be added by a dash of fish sauce

I agree with a pp about a little milk at the final stage
Also agree with pp about the madness of draining fat from the dish as this is part of the deliciousness

Rolls herself into kitchen

I think my slow oven cooking at about 120 degrees for hours and steak minced in front of my eyes at my butcher is worth not browning the mince.

I have just frozen my massive batch of ragu. £30 ingredient cost but it made 10 portions. I lived in Bologna for a bit, often fed people and no one complained.

If you need to drain off fat, then frankly you need to buy better quality meat!

Or if you are on a budget and have no choice but to buy cheap mince, then draining off the fat is just fine. Dont be snobbish.

Yep I have 7/8 people to feed
So I buy cheap mince and drain it.

Brown the mince
Add an onion (finely diced)
Add garlic (not too much)
Cook off some tomato puree and add chopped tomatoes.
Then a good glug of red wine, salt, pepper and basil.

If I'm using bog-standard mince I add a beef stock cube.

I usually cook it for about 45 minutes but it is much nicer if it simmers for a couple of hours.

I have never ever had to drain off any fat. I cook the mince in olive oil.

1horatio
Sedano = celery