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?

@RedactedTaeFeck

Whilst I'm no fan of cheap pasta sauces, I have been known to use a Loyd Grossman tomato and basil to save time. Nothing in it that you wouldn't put in your own sauce to be honest. Buy it when on offer at £1 a jar and it's instant flavour.

All of the jar sauces contain sugar. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't put sugar in my home-made sauces.

I am a shocking cook with little interest in it but even I can make lasagne. You've got to cook the meat!

There's not much that I can cook well, but my lasagne is legendary. And I would never use raw mince!

This sounds truly disgusting 🤢

@BeenAsFarAsMercyAndGrand I put a tbsp sugar in my bolognese/ragu. I see it often in recipes for it, supposedly it takes the acidic edge out of the tinned tomatoes/Passata. Don't know if that's true or not but I've been doing it for so long that I wouldn't stop now. My bolognese tastes pretty good so perhaps there is something in it.

@BeenAsFarAsMercyAndGrand

I always put a bit of sugar or honey in my tomato sauce.It's too acidic otherwise. It doesn't taste that great without it. The exception is if I use my homegrown tomatoes as they are very sweet anyway, but I'm not a great gardener so I usually only get enough to make one batch of that a year.

Eww disgusting.
Ragu takes all day to make a perfect sauce.
Some people just cannot cook or be arsed.

She was so preoccupied with whether or not she could, she didn't stop to think if she should.

The dirty bastard! Urgh, all that fat from the mince that you'd usually drain off, sitting there on your plate. That's bleegusting.

I fry my onions until they are caramelised and sweet - that takes the edge of any acidity. No need for sugar at all.

^ takes the edge off any acidity

@Blondeshavemorefun

So everyone on here makes own sauce and simmers for hours

Brown, assemble, bring to a simmer, lid on and in the oven at 140C for two hours. If I am going out, I set the oven to turn itself off and allow it to cool in there.

If you cook your tomatoes long enough, the acidity will go.

I however, almost always end up firing in a spoonful of sugar as a shortcut,

Your friends method sounds so vile OP that I’ve had to move away from this thread!

All of the jar sauces contain sugar. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't put sugar in my home-made sauces.

Sugar is pretty far down the list on a Loyds sauce and like pps, I may or may not add a touch depending on how it was tasting. When I was hiding veg when DCs were fussy ids, I would finely grate carrot in and that adding any sweetness required. It seems to have 6g of sugar per 100g which is low and some of which will be natural sugars from the tomatoes.

I'm sure half the folk avoiding adding sugar to their ragu would happily bake a cake with a shit ton of sugar.

It wont kill you but the flavours will be quite inferior if the mince isn't browned first.

www.madeformums.com/school-and-family/just-how-much-sugar-is-in-your-favourite-pasta-sauces/

Actually pretty interesting. There is near enough as much sugar in a tin of tomatoes and I guess you'd need more of those to simmer down to get the flavour in a jar.

Obviously there are taste differences between jars and fresh but a lot of that will be down to seasoning and personal preference.

I don't really get the sugar hate - it's a small amount in a big pot of bolognese. No one is forcing anyone to add it if they don't want to! But in regards to the original question, OP your friends way of making lasagne is grim, I'd never dream of doing that! A good lasagne takes time, if you don't have time or can't be bothered then just have something different or pop to the shops and buy a ready made one. Raw mince in a lasagne is 🤢

And that is why I only eat my own lasagna 🤢

It must be quite hard to spread out raw mince. Does the sauce get poured over it, or mixed with the raw mince? It just seems such an unpleasant way to cook.

All you would need to add Jack Monroes method of making a roux in a blender (not cooked) and it could be the worst meal ever.

Mate your friend can't cook! That's all I can offer to this "debate"

So everyone on here makes own sauce and simmers for hours

It's not difficult. Actually making the sauce takes very little time, and then the oven does the rest, leaving you free to do other things. If I haven't got time, I cook something else instead. I'd rather have no lasagne than lasagne out of jars or made with not very tasty ragu.

This is how serial killers make lasagna.

Well you are correct because that is the traditional way to make a lasagna.

But if she sees it as a time saver and it tastes ok to her then that’s fair enough.

Personally I think it sounds hideous and I wouldn’t be going to her house for dinner any time soon