everyone who's said not to use olive oil is heathen! you need a good olive oil at the start for sauteing your onions and if you're feeling indulgent a drizzle to finish it, too. if you're burning your onions in that, you're cooking too hot.
Okay, I have a new pot of not-bolognese-because-it-doesn't-have-carrots-and-celery-in-it simmering on the stove now. It already smells way better than yesterday's effort, but we'll see how it tastes in an hour or two.
Main things I've done differently:
- Drained the meat. I also cooked it in a seperate pan from everything else, to make sure none of the juices got mixed in. Last time I cooked it on top of the onions, and it smelled kinda gross as soon as the juice leaked out; this time, own its own, it smelt fine. (It's the same meat from the same packet as yesterday, so it's definitely the method that's doing it.) Oh, and I fried it in a mix of olive oil and butter.
- Fried the onions in shitloads of olive oil till they were merely translucent.
- Used like half the tube of tomato pureé.
- Added a generous splash of Worcestershire sauce -- this is a substitute for wine, which I didn't get a chance to buy today.
- Pure oregano rather than mixed herbs, and more of it.
- A pinch of sugar.
Lieberkuhn on
While you eat, let's have a conversation about the nature of consent.
you can't go too wrong from here. add salt if it needs it (it will, if you haven't added any yet) but make sure you taste as you add to make sure you don't go overboard
New issue raising its head: I don't think the heat is low enough. The liquid is evaporating quite quickly, even though I keep adding water to it. I use a gas hob, and I have the pot (large, stainless steel) on the smallest ring on the lowest heat. Should I just keep adding water when it gets too dry?
Oh man I am the noobest cooking noob that ever noobed
Lieberkuhn on
While you eat, let's have a conversation about the nature of consent.
it really shouldn't be losing too much liquid if it's covered and you aren't opening it every thirty seconds. the hole is normal. don't stress if it seems super steamy in there and wet inside the lid, that's supposed to happen. the water will work its way back into the sauce.
This thread inspired me to create a bolognese of sorts. I used some ground buffalo I was saving for something else and some pancetta. Still simmering but it already tastes great.
I like to let it cook down instead of covering it.
Hmm, maybe I'm just checking it too frequently, then. It's not the water loss that bothering me so much as the risk of the meat burning. Whenever I check it it's starting to stick to the bottom in a threatening manner, so I feel that I really need to stir every ten minutes or so. (I have cremated dinner before due to not checking frequently enough.)
Lieberkuhn on
While you eat, let's have a conversation about the nature of consent.
That should work, right? Am I missing an ingredient or cooking something incorrectly? I've been told that the problem might be that I'm using crappy meat, but that sounds like an excuse. Sure, poor quality [strike]water[/strike]meat won't taste as good as high quality meat, but this tastes awful. I'm certain that most people could do a better job with these ingredients.
Quality ingredients are the key to quality food.
Lean Mince (preferably meat that hasn't gone through a freezer). Low quality and frozen meats will tend to have the rancid flavour that you're describing (you can cover that up if you get EVERYTHING else right, but you really need to know what you're doing).
ROMA Tomatoes - any good red italian sauce should use roma. It's a really thick, meaty, low-seed tomato. This will solve any bitterness problems people claim to have with tomatoes.
Also, adding sugar? wtf? Sugar is for cakes. If you need some sweetness, have a cinnamon stick in while you simmer (and remove when complete).
You should never need to be adding water. Use red wine and stock to do your simmering - you should be using about equal quantities of non-water liquids to meat (ie, 500g should have about 300ml of stock and 200ml of red wine) - a little less is fine, but anything less than 1/2 as much would really be pushing it. Any red wine that you find drinkable is fine.
Fresh Herbs add a bit too, but that mainly makes the leap from great to incredible - dried is fine if you're just aiming for good. If you add salt or pepper, use a grinder.
cinnamon isn't sweetness, it's just a spice that is associated with sweetness because it's used in desserts a lot
trust me, sugar is key. you don't want the thing to taste like chocolate syrup, obviously, but it's a huge help in creating a rich, complex sauce with balanced flavours
Wait, about the draining the meat thing. Is this always the case when you brown meat off in another pan? Like, if I make chili and cook the meat somewhere other than the pot the chili is in, I should strain the grease off before adding it to the pot? All of the grease?
Wait, about the draining the meat thing. Is this always the case when you brown meat off in another pan? Like, if I make chili and cook the meat somewhere other than the pot the chili is in, I should strain the grease off before adding it to the pot? All of the grease?
Always drain the grease unless the recipe calls for you to keep it - it doesn't have to be bone dry, but you want to get as much as you can get easily. The drainage is almost entirely fat and water, which isn't really good eats.
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Main things I've done differently:
- Drained the meat. I also cooked it in a seperate pan from everything else, to make sure none of the juices got mixed in. Last time I cooked it on top of the onions, and it smelled kinda gross as soon as the juice leaked out; this time, own its own, it smelt fine. (It's the same meat from the same packet as yesterday, so it's definitely the method that's doing it.) Oh, and I fried it in a mix of olive oil and butter.
- Fried the onions in shitloads of olive oil till they were merely translucent.
- Used like half the tube of tomato pureé.
- Added a generous splash of Worcestershire sauce -- this is a substitute for wine, which I didn't get a chance to buy today.
- Pure oregano rather than mixed herbs, and more of it.
- A pinch of sugar.
Oh man I am the noobest cooking noob that ever noobed
I like to let it cook down instead of covering it.
Quality ingredients are the key to quality food.
Lean Mince (preferably meat that hasn't gone through a freezer). Low quality and frozen meats will tend to have the rancid flavour that you're describing (you can cover that up if you get EVERYTHING else right, but you really need to know what you're doing).
ROMA Tomatoes - any good red italian sauce should use roma. It's a really thick, meaty, low-seed tomato. This will solve any bitterness problems people claim to have with tomatoes.
Also, adding sugar? wtf? Sugar is for cakes. If you need some sweetness, have a cinnamon stick in while you simmer (and remove when complete).
You should never need to be adding water. Use red wine and stock to do your simmering - you should be using about equal quantities of non-water liquids to meat (ie, 500g should have about 300ml of stock and 200ml of red wine) - a little less is fine, but anything less than 1/2 as much would really be pushing it. Any red wine that you find drinkable is fine.
Fresh Herbs add a bit too, but that mainly makes the leap from great to incredible - dried is fine if you're just aiming for good. If you add salt or pepper, use a grinder.
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trust me, sugar is key. you don't want the thing to taste like chocolate syrup, obviously, but it's a huge help in creating a rich, complex sauce with balanced flavours
Always drain the grease unless the recipe calls for you to keep it - it doesn't have to be bone dry, but you want to get as much as you can get easily. The drainage is almost entirely fat and water, which isn't really good eats.
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