In the process of making Kenjis ultimate bolognese. This is probably my third time making it. It should’ve reduced and emulsified by now but it’s been 4 hours now and it still looks like this. Kinda sludgy and a thick layer of oil on top.Not sure if I should just skim the oil at this point, continue cooking, other options?
Any help is appreciated!
by Brasketleaf
44 Comments
Increase oven temp and let it reduce more.
did you brown the meat before and drain the oil?
If you have a lot of fat at the top (looks like oli when you let it sit) then maybe you should use leaner ground beef.
If it’s water, it needs to reduce longer.
If there are clumps, you can emulsify / smoothen with an immersion blender.
Looks like excess fat to me. Also needs to be reduced more.
Just keep reducing it. I’ve made Kenji’s Bolognese a few times now and my times differ wildly from his so I just go by the milestones that I’m actually supposed to achieve in the recipe instead of the time it takes to achieve them. The fat will incorporate back into the recipe once the sauce has been reduced enough.
prob need to be using more heat to reduce
I would skim off a good deal of the fat and let it reduce some more. Could always add a little gelatin to it as well for additional body if that is what you are wanting. Also when you cook the pasta portions from it, the strartchy water will thicken it in the end result as well. I forget if the recipe calls for gelatin or not. I love this recipe and freeze it in portions for quick weeknight meals.
Also it is much easier to slow cook in the oven as you don’t need to worry about the bottom burning if you don’t stir it enough. Just a tip for future cooks.
Did you close the lid?!
I’d fucking chuck it, hang up your apron, and burn down your kitchen!
Just Kidding of course. Completely fixable with the further reduction and fat skimming already mentioned. Source: made it yesterday and confronted the same issue and it came out perfectly.
Happy New Year, fellow culinary traveler!
Did you brown and drain the meat first? It looks like you threw it right in there and boiled it.
Did you follow step 6 properly, cooking in the oven and scraping and stirring frequently?
Needs to cook 2 more hours
Protip – to get the oil off, don’t skim. Let it settle, and place a paper towel on top to soak the oil. The capillary effect will wick all the oil up into the paper towel, without taking any of the good stuff with it,. Just do that 3-4 times until the excess oil is gone. I’ve had this happen several times as well, the paper towel trick is super easy and get the oil off no problem.
Simmer on low heat uncovered for about four hours and Bob’s your uncle.
This comment section is carnage.
So much grease on top is sealing the moisture in, so it’s not reducing. Just as though you had left a lid on, it would take a lot longer to reduce.
Keep cooking it. Skin some fat off as others said
Meat varies a lot about how much fat and how much moisture us in it. That this layer of fat slows down evaporation, too.
Next batch, cook the meat until pretty done and kinda dry, and drain excess fat. (If you’re worried you took out too much, drain it into a clean ovensafe dish and you can add some back for next steps if needed.
For this pot, yes I’d skim the fat off.
Looks like you french fry’d when you should have pizza’d
Reduce more
Keep cooking it. Skin some fat off as others said
Too much grease on top and not enough tomato.
To be honest, his Bolognese recipe is one of the “worst” (as in overrated) food lab recipes. I’ve always had to really reduce hard towards the end as well.
1. Brown the meat, get rid of excess fat.
2. Looks like you have added zero milk, why?!
3. Tomato puree, where is it?
Your meat was high fat and should have pored out most of the grease. Needs tomato paste and better tomatoes crushed.
To get rid of oil. Add a large bunch of ice and quickly remove. The grease will stick to the ice.
Too much liquid. Reduce. Don’t cover it.
Kenjis bolognese doesn’t work! Mine looked the same. Milk is better than cream.
Cook it uncovered in the oven for two hours and it will be fine
Too much fat and needs to cook longer to thicken it. Maybe some tomato paste needed as it looks real thin.
Skim the fat off with a ladle. Looks just fine!
What ‰ fat meat are you using? Maybe brown it and skim it, that looks greasy as a J-Rok video…
It looks like you used cream and that it has split… Perhaps your heat was too high after adding the cream. Regardless, I would definitely remove most of the fat from top, cook without lid on low-medium heat to allow the sauce to reduce, and if the sauce still looks funky after reducing, add half a cup of boiling water and whisk the sauce vigorously while it’s re reducing, it should help to emulsify the split cream. Good luck 😊
reduce reduce reduce
Kenji…🤔 Bolognese is authentic Italian, you better use a traditional Italian recipe: https://www.vincenzosplate.com/authentic-bolognese-sauce/
Excess fat
You haven’t cooked it down long enough
Who the fuck adds milk to bolognese? It’s meat, carrot, onion, celery, wine and tomato passata. Let it cook at low heat and enjoy!
I’d guess you didn’t drain the meat.
Reduce
Are you simmering it with the lid off? It’s gotta reduce way down
Too much fat. Too much liquid. Increase the heat a bit, I don’t even see any signs of a simmer going.
Everything
I need some troubleshooting help with my bolognese tonight as well.
Whenever I make this recipe, the meat always comes out dry. I cooked the meat to a little pink and removed from the heat. I also simmered in the oven for 4 hours, but the meat always seems to be chewy.
Any tips?