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Ragu sauce redux - how to make a better Spag Bol

Hugh
2008-10-17 21:29:00 UTC

Right. Ragu sauce, aka Bolognaise Sauce.

Having ragged on Jamie’s gu (ooer), I feel I should throw my own hat into the red, bubbling, aromatic ring. So – what do I think should be done to improve Jamie’s ragu?

The short answer would be “I think it should be Heston Blumenthal’s ragu”. I’ll post a piece from the archives on cooking Heston’s Spag Bol on Tuesday. Despite the 8 hours it takes to cook, and the considerable cost of ingredients, Heston’s “Perfect” Spag Bol is indeed the finest example of the breed I’ve ever tasted, and ranks as one of the nicest-tasting meals I’ve ever cooked anywhere.

However, assuming that you don’t have 8 hours? Then here are five tips to spice up Jamie’s bland ragu:

Brown the damn meat . Jamie just chucks the meat in with the sauce. This is like putting up a sign saying “I don’t like flavour. Please make my ragu blander than Gordon Brown’s sex life.”. (I’m assuming here.) As you’re probably all sick of me saying by now, browning your meat stimulates the Maillard reactions, which cause an immensely complex cascade of flavour-producing reactions. I have no idea whatsoever why Jamie doesn’t do this – it’s just insane not to.

Add celery and carrot . The soffrito, the standard Italian package of vegetables added at the start of the meal, normally contains more than just onion and garlic. Exactly what’s in there is the subject of much debate and a certain number of Medieval city-state wars, but two of the most common ingredients are carrot and celery. There’s a reason for that – it’s that they make the taste of the ragu much richer and more complex. Both are, interestingly, from the same family of plants, and according to Harold McGee, add a “warm, woody” note to dishes, which is seriously lacking from Jamie’s effort. I also find the slight astringency of the celery adds something. By the way, if you hate celery and are going “eew” right now – most people don’t use celery right. Don’t use it as a vegetable. Use it as a herb.

Add milk Yes, milk. I normally add a bit in with the meat, after the onion and garlic are softened. Heston Blumenthal says that the proteins and sugars in the milk react to give the ragu extra body, and I could believe that. It also adds a bit of fat, which is something that’s definitely needed (see below). It’s also classic Italian, so it makes it doubly surprising that Jamie doesn’t include it. I first heard about this on “America’s Test Kitchen”, where they concluded that it made the best pasta sauce.

Add something sweet, something salt, something acid, and something fishy In Heston’s case, he adds Thai fish sauce, which is very fishy indeed, and sherry vinegar for the sweetness. I’ve tried that, but I find if you’re cooking just for one person, it’s very easy to get his flavourings out of whack. Instead, I tend to add a dollop of Oyster Sauce and a little bit of red wine vinegar – this one I’ve not seen anywhere, and it’s certainly not classical Italian, but it’s very nice, and gives a similar effect. Certainly, you should always add something slightly sweet to tomatoes – Harold McGee verifies that flavour chemists have tested and found both sugar and acidity intensify the flavour of tomatoes.

Add fat Heston’s Spag Bol uses about a ton of butter. I’d like to live past 35, so I tend to stir in a bunch of olive oil just before serving. This is an adaption of the technique Heston’s using, which is the French Monte Au Buerre, meaning “lift with butter”. Frankly, I prefer my approach for general use – Heston’s produces a very rich, heavy, filling sauce, wheras the olive oil is lighter and adds a fresh note to the proceedings.

There are dozens of other tips – add tomato leaves right at the end (intensifies flavour, again). Add stock. Serve with parmesan (really works). But, basically, if you can’t do better than Jamie’s ultra-basic ragu, you’re not trying hard enough.

pajh | 2008-10-17 21:49:03 UTC

“most people don’t use celery right. Don’t use it as a vegetable. Use it as a herb”

I’ve always wondered why bouquet garni comes with celery. Any more information on this bit?

matthijs | 2008-10-17 21:53:12 UTC

It’s fairly traditional to include some chicken liver among the meat. Also, when cooking the sauce, stick a large piece of bacon in the pan. During the three or four hours you’re cooking the sauce it’ll give up quite a bit of flavor to the sauce.

As far as tomatoes are concerned: my guess is they don’t actually belong in Bologna-style ragu. The reason I think that is a) that I’ve seen quite a few recipes without them but, more importantly, b) tomatoes are a Southern Italy thing and traditionally, Northeners refuse to eat them.

Hugh | 2008-10-18 01:54:27 UTC

That’s interesting – when I was in Bologna earlier this year, all the ragus I had were tomato ones. Could it be that the anti-tomato thing has weakened in recent years?

Chicken liver – good call, I’d forgotten that.

Bouquet Garni – no idea, I’m afraid. Anyone?

Louise Dennis | 2008-10-18 08:33:49 UTC

Watching my brother-in-law make spag bol sauce from a packet when we were on holiday suddenly convinced Bill and I that our original “let’s take equal shares with the cooking” idea wasn’t going to fly. He also just dumped the meat straight in the sauce, even though the packet said to brown. I guess if you’re not so interested in food/cookery its just a simpler approach and given that part of Jamie’s plan is just to get people cooking that makes a certain amount of sense. Of course coupling that approach to the ragu with make your own pasta is a little quixotic.

Hugh | 2008-10-18 11:25:46 UTC

Quite! If it was a quick, simple “just get them cooking” recipe that took half an hour, I’d be more forgiving. But it’s serious dinner-party stuff, and for that, I’d expect a bit more sophistication.

Amanda | 2008-10-18 12:11:21 UTC

I imagine Bouquet Garni has the celery because it’s an aromatic.

Eric | 2008-10-20 19:38:17 UTC

I’m stunned that any qualified chef would call a sauce without the mirepoix or the dairy a “bolognese.” It’s just meat sauce otherwise. And only barely.

I’ve always been a fan of adding sherry vinegar to my bol. Adds a nice kick. I soemtimes use a dollop of sour cream, against the advice of America’s Test Kitchen, instead of the milk, but…dangit, I like sour cream.

Kristin | 2008-10-21 01:42:03 UTC

I am horrified – HORRIFIED – that any recipe for sauce of any kind that involves meat does not ask one to brown the meat first. Perhaps it’s because my great-grandparents on my mother’s side were all off the boat from Italy and Sicily, but the thought of putting raw mince or chunks of meat in sauce to…simmer cooked, I guess…makes me ill. I mean…not even seasoned? Dear lord.

Browning the meat in a bit of olive oil, and then adding some of the cooking fat (not all of it, unless it’s terribly lean meat) along with the meat to the sauce tends to work to add a bit of flavor, but I like my sauce to taste very cooked. It might be kind of heavy for some.

Hugh | 2008-10-21 16:45:48 UTC

Eric + Kirsty – I completely agree with both. It’s a really odd recipe – and given that Jamie has quite a bit of cook’s training and background (he used to work at the River Cafe, I believe), I’m really startled he missed out so many vital points.

Eric – thanks, I didn’t know the term for the onions/celery/carrot combination. Yeah, Sherry Vinegar’s also a good trick – I must admit I don’t always use it just because I hardly ever have it in the kitchen. What else do you find it useful for?

Kristin – sounds great to me!

Eric | 2008-10-21 18:48:20 UTC

Ahh, the lovely sherry vinegar. I find myself using it often in the making of vinaigrettes, naturally. Also, I find some mayonaisses benefit from it as well (if I’m making an aioli/alioli/whatever heavy on the garlic, I find the sweet-sour vinegar helps balance the sharpness of the garlic – it pairs well with garlic and onion). Works great for poulet au vinaigre, too. It’s a good vinegar for zipping up sauces or soups, too, in small amounts – it’s got a nice nuttiness that helps hide the “Oh hey there’s vinegar in this” aspect that adding normal wine vinegar can.

It’s just one of those things…once you’ve tasted it, you just sort of instinctively know what you want to use it for. It has a fairly complex flavor that helps add a lot of notes at once (of course that can be overdone, and oh I’ve terribly overdone it many times). It doesn’t always work as a direct replacement for red wine vinegar, either.

Of course, like most vinegars, there’s good vinegar and crap vinegar and worlds of difference between the two. Cheap sherry vinegar isn’t going to be as awful as, say, cheap balsamic, though. I’m lucky enough to have an importer of the good stuff a mere few city blocks from my house, so I’m likely quite spoiled in that regard.

Hugh | 2008-10-22 10:53:04 UTC

Interesting – thanks.

I must admit, when I’ve had it in, I’ve never been instinctively drawn to it – I prefer a good balsamic or at a pinch some red wine vinegar. I’ll pick some up, though, and give it another go – I’m intrigued by its uses in sauces.

Eric | 2008-10-23 13:33:15 UTC

A little does go a long way. :)

I tend to grab the red wine vinegar before the balsamic, mostly because balsamics tend to add more “sweet” than I’m usually looking for (and significantly more expensive). I did once find an aged spanish red wine viengar that was about halfway between a balsamic and a wine viengar – slightly sweet but acidic enough to be more generally useful as well.

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