Why add milk to bolognese?

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asked Sep 9 in Recipes by Dwayne601 (1,680 points)
Why add milk to bolognese?

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answered Sep 9 by RCallahan (22,440 points)
The reason why you add milk to bolognese is to add richness and create a richer and silkier bolognese sauce by the addition of fat from the milk.

The milk in bolognese sauce basically adds richness and creates a silkier bolognese sauce by the addition of dairy solids, which caramelize and also adds a subtle sweetness and nuttiness from the sugars in the milk.

The milk also tenderizes the meat in bolognese sauce as well by leveraging the calcium in the milk and the milk's acidity helps prevent the meat in the bolognese sauce from getting tough during the long cooking process when making bolognese sauce.

The ingredients of bolognese sauce are ground beef and pork, a soffritto of finely diced onions, carrots and celery and tomatoes like crushed or whole peeled tomatoes, tomato paste and even wine.

The bolognese sauce is slow simmered to develop flavor and some recipes for bolognese sauce also include milk or some cream to add richness and even herbs such as basil, oregano or bay leaves as well as salt and some pepper.

The three meats in Bolognese sauce are ground pork, ground beef and ground veal.

These 3 meats are combined to make a rich, flavorful sauce that has different textures.

The beef in bolognese sauce adds depth, the pork in bolognese sauce adds fat and sweetness and veal adds a silky and smooth consistency to the bolognese sauce.

The best pasta for bolognese is hearty, flat or tubular pasta which can hold the rich meaty bolognese sauce like tagliatelle.

Tagliatelle is the most popular choice of pasta that is used for bolognese, although some other good pastas that are also good for bolognese are rigatoni, fettuccine and even pappardelle.

The wider noodles such as tagliatelle and pappardelle noodles have a larger surface area, which allows the bolognese sauce to coat and cling to every piece of the pastas.

You can use bolognese sauce for spaghetti, although the authentic version of the bolognese dish is served and eaten with wider and flat pasta noodles like pappardelle or tagliatelle, because the thicker pasta is better at holding onto the rich, meaty bolognese sauce.

But you certainly can use bolognese sauce for spaghetti or any other noodles that you prefer.

The ingredients that are in authentic bolognese are a soffritto of finely diced onions carrots, celery, pancetta, a mix of ground beef and pork or even just beef, dry white wine, a small amount of tomato passata or puree, and whole milk, which is then slowly cooked with minimal amount of seasoning beyond salt, pepper and sometimes a bay leaf or nutmeg.

The bolognese sauce is also simmered for several hours, to develop a rich, tender texture and it's then served traditionally with fresh tagliatelle.

The difference between bolognese sauce and regular spaghetti sauce is that regular spaghetti sauce is any type of sauce that is served with spaghetti.

And bolognese sauce is made with ground or minced meat, like beef or pork as well as a mix of vegetables such as carrots, onions, celery, wine, which is often white wine and dairy such as cream or milk and has only a small amount of tomato in the ingredients.

Generic spaghetti sauce can be a simple tomato and garlic sauce also known as marinara, a creamy sauce, or a tomato based meat sauce which lacks the specific ingredients and slow cooked complexity of authentic Bolognese sauce.

Bolognese sauce, which is known in Italian as ragù alla bolognese or ragù bolognese, is the main variety of ragù in Italian cuisine.

Bolognese sauce is associated with the city of Bologna. Ragù alla bolognese is a slowly cooked meat-based sauce, and its preparation involves several techniques, including sweating, sautéing, and braising.

Spaghetti sauce can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes.

In some countries the term spaghetti sauce refers to a sauce to be served as part of a dish; in others, it is a condiment.

Spaghetti sauce is essentially a version of a marinara sauce.

Spaghetti sauce usually contains added ingredients such as ground beef to make a bolognese sauce.

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