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?

@Blondeshavemorefun , thank you for that! Excellent news.

Re did I tell them first... I said it was a different recipe from usual so I'd like feedback.
DH checked if it had to be positive, DS1 started looking for hidden aubergine .

I fessed up at the end, and DSs said they prefer it and want it mad like that in future. In fact, I think I'll now be compelled to reproduce is just as you say, @OccultGnuAsWell! Strangely it was reminiscent of a really good pizza- the intensity of the tomato, I think.

Initially I couldn't see why I wouldn't just use ragu I'd preprepared, but actually it's another easy prep meal.

I reckon if you can cook, you can cook it this way if you want/need to. You have to pack the tomato sauce and white sauce with flavour, though, but that's not hard.

Really needs frying first to get a Maillard reaction and gain the best flavour.

@picklemewalnuts Your commitment is commendable!! I'm glad someone tried it.

Is your friend a 1st year university student?

I still think it depends on a) quality of the beef. B) if you prefer your meat pink. No right or wrong really

@Hoppinggreen

As Mr Malcolm said in Jurassic Park You spent so much time discovering whether you could you didn’t stop to consider whether you should

Sounds vile! You need to make a good bolognaise first before you can make a decent lasagne

'still think it depends on a) quality of the beef. B) if you prefer your meat pink. No right or wrong really' @maddy68

It is unsafe to eat minced beef pink unless it is steak.

Don't let her cook for you.

Is your friend a 1st year university student?

No, a late 30s mother of 3

UGH! The GREASE! Lots and lots of grease. I make huge vats of pasta sauce for freezing in small batches, and I start with whole tomatoes and raw mince...actually, freshly minced sirloin. I want it to cook down in the sauce and flavor it. And I can tell you that I spend enormous amounts of time skimming off grease. LOL, I even made a skimmer with a sieve, coffee filters and small clips. I can't imagine cooking a dish with raw mince that could not be drained/skimmed. I'd as soon drink a glass of drippings!

Ha, preferring meat pink?
That comes from someone with no clue about food.
Beef is good cooked rare, not in lasagne though, and if you think it is you can't cook, well obviously..

Posting without reading the full thread, ahem. Back when we didn't have a cooker I used to make lasagne in the microwave from mince, jar sauces, and dried lasagna sheets. Came out nicer and cheaper than a ready meal. But I can't remember if I precooked the mince or just put it straight in the sauce raw, I think even then I probably precooked it.

I always brown mince first!
Wouldn't feel it was cooked properly if not

@safariboot
You're buying the wrong ready meals!
I get them sometimes and Charlie Bighams are great.
Even the finest range are pretty good if you can't be bothered.
Raw mince lasagne is never going to be what I'd call edible, even if you like your steak rare!
(Honestly, the preferring steak pink so making lasagne to get pink mince is one of the weirdest things/boasts I've ever read on here in 15 years)

Mince is not safe to eat pink, unless you mince your own washed steak. It's something to do with contamination but cant recall what sorry

Wouldn't the mince be clumped together? I hate that. I stir it for ages, I hate having a chilli or Ragu with big lumpy bits of chewy mince

Sauce from a jar, raw mince? She hasn’t got a clue

That sounds rank. There's no way I can cook with mince without browning it and draining any excess fat off first. Ugh I bet it's so greasy. And those jar sauces are like 90% sugar.

YABU.
Reminds me of those sleb chef recipes where-they tell you to put uncooked aubergines in the oven to bake parmigiana - just doesn’t work unless you part cook/soften first -clearly their lackey under chef who does the actual work forgot to tell them that part.
Very interesting aboit the Maillard Effect - thanks @Crowsaregreat !
Always roast the chicken parts before putting them in cooker -makes much better tasting stock.

@Ddot
It's because only the outside of a steak will be contaminated potentially, so it's fine rare, or even blue as the outside is seared.
If a good butcher or restaurant who knows their sources, they then can chop the meat and serve it raw as tartare.
A random pack of mince from the supermarket, is not safe to do this with.
It'll also taste utterly revolting if you use it raw in a lasagne!

No, this sounds utterly vile. Raw mince is pretty foul and, as we all know, requires cooking and flavouring before it's edible. Ugh.

You can't.

Your friend's lasagne sounds terrible. Sorry.

You need to make your own ragu and that takes like 2 hrs to be good

Wow impressed with the experiment but in no rush to try it.

I do use dried lasagna sheets rather than fresh and put them in that way - they cook and soften with the cooking. This is how my mum does it and I was about 30 before I realised this wasn’t normal.