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?

Whilst I wouldn't do this, I don't really have fat coming out of mince but then I buy good quality low fat content steak mince mostly. The fat in higher fat mince definitely does add to the flavour imo but I don't need the fat in my life and I usually don't have the time to allow it to cool to collect the fat from the top.

My favourite short cut in a similar style is to put frozen mash on top of my cottage/shepherds pie and pop in the oven :)

That’s not really cooking, it’s just assembling ingredients & putting them in the oven.

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

My instinctive reaction is 🤮
But I wonder if your friend is a genius?? I think I'm too scared of food poisoning to try though.

This is all about the Maillard reaction

It's a chemical reaction that develops flavour in food, it's why you brown things before chucking them in a pie. Her way won't be poisonous but it will lack flavour.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

Grim.

Making a good ragu is 90% of what makes the lasagne great

Raw mince and a jar of sauce?? She may as well just buy a ready meal lasagne. Probably tastes better.

She should just buy on.

That sounds so grim.

Has anyone knowingly tried lasagne made with the raw meat method? If they have can they tell me what it was like?

Failing that is anyone willing to make a lasagne using that method, eating it and reporting back?

I now really want to know what it's like. But am vegetarian so have a get out clause am reluctant to compromise my beliefs.

Yuk! I don't think that would be very nice at all. You need a good ragu to make a decent lasagna and it's so easy to make.

@Hoppinggreen

Is that where the quote came from or did they use the well known quote -do you know? I thought it was much older than that?

But back to the lasagne - that sounds vile.

If it's all coming out of jars anyway, why not save the bother and buy one ready made!

Can’t understand how can layer raw mince and sauce

I cook mince maybe 5 mins with jar of sauce so brown. Then layer

And cook for hr on medium

Waits to be yelled at

Tho everyone says my lasagne is yummy

So no need to simmer mince for hours tho equally I wouldn’t do raw mince

you can eat raw mince but i dubt it would taste nice in a lsagne

@Crowsaregreat

This is all about the Maillard reaction

It's a chemical reaction that develops flavour in food, it's why you brown things before chucking them in a pie. Her way won't be poisonous but it will lack flavour.

^ This!

Honestly Blondeshavemorefun try making the ragu yourself some time. I promise you will notice the difference to a jarred sauce. It's easy to make and you can leave it to its own devices for hours. You don't have to stand over it, just give it a stir now and again.

I'm with everyone that says yours would taste much better.

She's obviously got low standards for lasagne. Tbh, I don't know why she doesn't just buy premade lasagne if making a meat sauce is too much faff for her. It'd be nicer than what she's making.

@Blondeshavemorefun

Can’t understand how can layer raw mince and sauce

I cook mince maybe 5 mins with jar of sauce so brown. Then layer

And cook for hr on medium

Waits to be yelled at

Tho everyone says my lasagne is yummy

So no need to simmer mince for hours tho equally I wouldn’t do raw mince

Mince (particularly cheap, supermarket mince) doesn’t have any real flavour. You simmer in the sauce for a long time to soften the mince and blend the flavours.

I’ve never understood the need for jar sauces anyway. You can literally do the same thing without any the additional preservatives, salt sugar with a couple of cartons of passata or tinned tomatoes (depending on preference) and season however you like. It’s so incredibly simple.

@Blondeshavemorefun I won’t yell at you about it though, but I highly recommend trying it from scratch.

I would be tempted to make lasagne tonight but I'd have to start around now...

I have made own sometimes. Tins Tom’s onion pepper Tom purée herbs garlic pasarta etc red wine vinegar chopped Tom’s

Equally a jar of domino is just as simple 😂😂

I wouldn't like it done that way.

Reminds me of my first lodger, years ago, who made tuna pasta bake but didn't realise that you had to cook the pasta first before putting it in the oven. It was very crunchy! I suppose you could get away with not boiling the pasta first, if you had enough liquid sauce in there, but I doubt it would work very well.

Sacrilege Blondeshavemorefun! There is no hope for you, I am afraid.

I'm phoning the police!

Lasagna it with 101!

@MotorwayDiva

She's is BU, everyone knows you make the ragu and have bolognese the first night and lasagne the next.

This is so genius, I have no idea why we don't do that in this house! Making twice as much ragu the next time for sure!!!

People like your friend are the reason I'm always sick at home whenever there's a work potluck. I don't trust anyone with food. Yuck.