AIBU to think you can't make lasagne with raw mince?

[HetMeal]

I had a mild debate with a friend today who says you don't need to cook/brown the meat before you put it in the lasagne. She would do pasta sheets, white sauce, tomato basil sauce from a jar, raw minced beef, in layers.

I do it the normal way, cooking a tomatoey meat sauce first and layering that with bechamel and pasta sheets. She said using raw meat is a perfectly legitimate time saver and tastes fine.

I can't get my head around this, and wondering whether anyone else does it this way?

Traditionally, pre-fry the meat.
However, it could work both ways, but if for any reason the meat didn't get cooked right through (such as due to ice crystals, or faulty oven), then it would be dangerous to eat.
Minced meat (including other raw processed meats, like burgers, sausages, etc.) has the highest risk of food poisoning because in the arbitoire, the knife that cuts the animal makes contact with contaminated organs (e.g. poo in the rectum and gut). When a steak is grilled rare, the surface is heated sufficiently to kill off any surface bacteria. In minced meat, however, the surface bacteria is mushed up all through it, so surface grilling alone will not eliminate all the e-coli and staphylococcus aureus bacteria that can kill a person. With burgers and sausages, they are small enough to cook through quickly. But a lasagne has greater volume and mass, so runs the risk of heat not getting right through for sufficient time.
So, I would strongly recommend cooking the mince first as per the traditional methods.

5mins was prob under what I do. But def don’t do for hours

She’s been following this blog... 🤮
Lasagne made with Raw mince AND a tomato soup sachet...

thebeautyfoodie.com/lazy-lasagne/

Yes, frozen mince, cos otherwise how would you spread it out? It would be a grim cardboard layer.

Right. Drum roll....
It's actually perfectly tasty. Better by far than a ready meal. The flavours are all there, admittedly from different sources. Does the meat look grey? It doesn't in real life. The fail came in not being able to judge the liquid content. The two lower layers are perfect, but the top is a tad crunchy.

You'll have to wait for the three men to comment... I've had a sneaky pre taste.

The dog... well it's like a pretty, small, long legged bulldog. A slender boxer, with a short nose and protruding eyes.

He gets lots of admiring comments. What breed is he? He's a beauty! What lovely markings etc etc. He's a mutt from a rescue centre.

I wouldn’t. Sounds grim

Vomit

@HollowTalk

She doesn't understand cooking, does she?

Beautifully put, @HollowTalk

Men folk like it, DH particularly likes the tomato sauce.
You can see the minced beef among the tomato sauce, IYSWIM.

Eldest says better than any previous lasagne he's had. Youngest wants more.

Fascinating.

My Aunty boils mince, raw in a lasagne sounds just marginally less disgusting than that

🤮🤮🤮 why would she do that?? YANBU. I've never heard anything like that before haha!

Jesus that’s grim. I heaved when I tried to picture it. Surely it will cook into a greasy patty? I can’t unsee it.

@picklemewalnuts

Men folk like it, DH particularly likes the tomato sauce. You can see the minced beef among the tomato sauce, IYSWIM.

Eldest says better than any previous lasagne he's had. Youngest wants more.

Fascinating.

I'm amazed. And wondering whether I should try it now! Have I been wasting my life simmering ragu all these years?

@picklemewalnuts thats interesting! I thought you were going to say it wasn't great. What did you think of it.

Does the mince look brown?

What your friend is describing is not lasagne. It’s some bastardised lazy British interpretation of a classic Italian dish. But it most definitely is not lasagne. She should name is mince surprise or something.

You can see the minced beef among the tomato sauce, IYSWIM.

[shudder]

I KNEW they'd like it.
You feed them dog-food mince layered with a weird garlicky bechamel that's crunchy on top and it's the Best. Thing. Ever.

Heathens!

Ewwww

I never cook lasagne or spag bol the same day as I make the ragu, I do it in the slow cooker the day before.

I always cook my mince first.

"I would not have thought my friend was a terrible cook, but have not eaten a meal at her place before, so it's hard to tell."

I'm not a terrible footballer - because I can't play football.

I can tell from here she's not a terrible cook, because she simply can't cook.

I actively enjoyed it. I don't know if I'd do it again- I mean, why not just Ragu the day before?

That said my guys actively preferred it. It was a bit too ready meal for me- the tomato had that ready meal intensity to it.

I did put loads of flavour in the two sauces, to counteract the mince.

I've done it in the slow cooker without browning anything first. I wanted to try it out as I love lasagne and wanted to try a throw it all in quick method with bought sauce even if it wasn't quite as good. It was edible but tast/texture was quite like a cheap ready meal lasagne(very soft/smooth texture)! So I didn't make it again even though there was nothing really awful about it.

I once had a terrible lasagne at a friend's house. The mince was all grey with the odd lonely bit of a tomato here and there, and it tasted bland and greasy. I'm wondering if we have the same friend.