How make bolognese smooth and taste like bolognese

[Jenn500]

I follow recipes for bolognese and breakup the mince in the pan, but my bolognese never looks smooth like a bolognese from a ready meals or restaurant, also doesn’t have a distinct bolognese taste. My bolognese is very ‘Mincy’ rather than saucy and smooth

The best way to do this is to mince the meat twice! Or rather get the butcher to do it for you. In Italy, you can ask them to put it through the mincer again for you and lots of people do this for ragù. Also, you can cook it for longer. If you cook it for 3 hours it will break down further but probably not as fine as you want it.

Cook with plenty of herbs, olives and garlic then use a stick blender when it’s done to make it smooth. Never fails me.

Do you cook the mince first (brown it off)? I've recently learnt that if you Chuck everything in raw (mince / onions etc) with the tomatoes /sauce and cook it all up from raw whilst smashing the mince around in the pan with a spoon then it is much smoother than if you brown the mince first.

I brown the mince with nothing else in the pan (no onions etc). Add a splash of water or two while you cook it and don't have the temp up too high. Keep mixing, lots of mixing, and it breaks down to a much finer grain of mince. Then you can remove it from the pan and cook the onions etc then add the browned mince back in.

Brown the mince and break it up, add veg (I use onion, diced carrots, celery & lots of garlic) sweat it off, add jar of passata, 2 tins of chopped toms, a good squirt of tomato paste and mixed herbs, season well and mix in about 250ml of decent beef stock before putting in the oven on a lowish heat for a good few hours or into the slow cooker (just reduce the water quantity). Very rich and super tasty and you can leave it until you're ready to eat - if it's in for more than about 3 hours just check it's not going dry. . A splash of red wine is a good addition but I wouldn't open a bottle specially!

Blend it with a stick blender after it’s all cooked. But it will still have like a slightly grainy texture but I prefer it blended to ‘chunky’ !

Butter, I think authentic bolognaise involves butter and cooking it for hours.

@Dontsayyouloveme
i also do this every time but just for a few seconds

This recipe never fails. The secret is to cook it slowly and for hours.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/nov/25/how-to-make-perfect-bolognese

how long do you cook it for? my recipe says 30 mins, but i tend to do it a lot longer - an hour is good. i remember some chef saying to do this as mince tended to be older cuts of meat.

Long cooking and with some milk in it, the milk tenderises the meat and it breaks down.

They use ground meat, and very little of it. And I think they taste fake. Much prefer my homemade Bol made with minced beef and tomatoes.

I only like the smoother ones, I use frozen mince as it's all in single pellets and only really lightly brown it then simmer for ages

You need to slow cook it for at least 3 hours.
Using half beef and half pork mince can help

Blend it partially after cooking. I only found this out myself after I started doing it for my baby. Much tastier sauce 😀

Use the end of a balloon whisk to keep breaking it up, both as you brown it with the soffritto and once you've added the passata.

You need to add pork mince for the flavour

250g beef and 250g pork mince
Brown and stir it a lot

Add x2 tins toms and 1 tin water
Beef stock
Herbs spices

Simmer for at least an hour or hour and a half

Slow cooker breaks mince up small.

And fot flavour we always just use a flavour sachet for spag bol

I use a mixture of beef shin (so rich and delicious), pork mince and chicken liver. It melts together rather than having a mincey texture.

I'm renowned for my bolognese and lasagna. I would blend for a smoother texture but don't as I like a bit of texture.

I cook mine very slowly - 2-3 hrs minimum. sometimes longer.

I also think it tastes better with wine in but sometimes have to omit that depending on who is coming to eat.

What else do you put in it?
I usually think restaurant bolognese doesn’t taste much like an authentic bolognese (unless from a really good Italian), but I used to live in Italy so am a bit fussy about mine! I wouldn’t use mince for a start.

I chop the mince first, just with a knife to break up the strands a bit. Then cook for a while like this

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/best-spaghetti-bolognese-recipe

I would guess you aren’t cooking it for long enough. I cook it for at least two hours, preferably three. Also I tend to use passata rather than tinned tomatoes, again it’s smoother (DD doesn’t like the tomato ‘bits’). Finely chopped onion and garlic. Quite a lot of salt 😬. I sometimes put in a beef stock cube. It’s my favourite thing.

Agree with some of the above. (I'm in Italy)
Pork and beef mince if possible (20-80% or its greasy)
Brown the soffritto and mince in more olive oil than you'd probably think- it adds flavor. Ignore any Delia/etc recipe that measures oil out. You use "quanto basta" (what you need)
Add more salt to the sauce than you'd think. It's salt that takes away sour tomato taste. (dh is chef, I learned from him)
Passata, not tinned. (Mutti is imo the best)
Onion in the soffritto so no garlic. Authentic Italian recipes rarely use both in the same dish.
Red wine.
Stock cube or spoon of bovril
Cook for as long as you can.
Last 5 minutes, secret ingredient - slosh some milk in.

Cook it long and slow - either in the oven or a slow cooker.