Spaghetti Bolognese Comparison Test | Sorted Food 

I absolutely agree!

Or a "No Bay Leaves" vs "2 Bay Leaves" vs "10 bay leaves" xD

I was just gonna post something like this as well. We need to settle this!

I'd say slip into into a "Pick the premium" or some other filming so the normals don't see it coming

Bayleaves ipick from thegarden dry them and blitz into fine polder. THAT tastes delicious. Brown dried leaves from 1645 have noooo taste indeed

Totally agree!!!! Really like this format and hope to see more!!

Baz tried to same himself with a parmesean crisp and lots of olive oil, oooh i think he knew he was going down when he decided to anoint his dish like is was an ancient king.

If I was in this battle with no time restraints I'd have to start in the morning and I'd only be done by the evening xD

I also really really enjoyed this. It's the same fun cooking content, but a different fresh take. AND, especially with common every day dishes, it creates a helpful guide to how you should and should not make a dish.

Agree completely. The time limit concept is a bit tired for me now, it limits what they can actually produce

right?! it was so cute

That moment where he paused and looked up. "You hacked it?" Had me rolling. Pure confusion at learning Barry used skips and mostly laid down on the couch during a TECHNIQUE battle.

😂Barry was being a bit cocky sitting down ! But hands down Barry has the best taste buds ever !!!!!

Merciless. Just as he should be. Kush is definitely my favourite judge.

That was bloody brutal 🤣🤣

The heap of cheese bought me too!

Same! I asked my husband(who didn't watch or hear the video) which one he'd prefer on looks alone and he said Mike's!

I read your comment wrong and thought you said Mike looked more tasty and inviting.

Baz picked a bad bowl as well imo, it really didn’t do him any favors with the plating

He’s brutal

@@SortedFoodHe’s right.

i feel like his confidence has gone up since he became a dad

Like another famous italian chef... "minimum effort, maximum satisfaction" 😉

@@Selbstvideo But we seem to have got minimum effort, minimum satisfaction.

Yeah, except that Kush could taste the laziness and just about chucked Barry's plate out the window.

Looking at the amount of cooking equipment he used in comparison, I don't think he saved himself much.

Yes but it didn't work in this case did it. Sometimes you have to put in the effort to be happy with the end result.

We’re terrified of him! 😂

Ben has 2 decades worth of friendship holding him back, James and Kush have a chef-y degree that keeps them up to their high standards!

James can be brutal but I think he feels bad for the normals sometimes and wants to be nice whereas Kush does not give a f lol

@@Nazhussain07 I think Ben said it best - that James is the master of the compliment sandwich! Kush is ... direct?

@@toni_go96 Maybe as we see him in more and more videos he'll soften up eventually 😂

Steady on. Haha 😂

I definitely heard the word "genius."

Same although I cook off the alcohol by adding it before other liquids. That's how I've always seen it done and I was interested that neither of them did that. Do you?

I save part of my tomatoes for the last 5 10 minutes when I cook Chilli to give it something special.

I've never saved some of the tin, but I do love some freshness so I often throw in some fresh diced tomatoes near the end

Maybe one day! 😉

@@SortedFood Blind taste test of identical foods but with(out) bay leaves would be really amusing

Yeah, cook one with and one without and have the two Chefs, tells us what the difference is.

Steep it like tea, or do a blind herb tasting challenge

@@WayAlpha101I had a similar idea before: Two dishes of the same thing, but one spice is missing. Can be bay leaves, can be clove, or rosemary or something. And then Ben and/or Kush tell us the difference in taste and pinpoints what is missing, from which dish. Or maybe even trying entirely different spice combinations in the same base dish, and opinions on which tastes better and why.

Because making a puree out of the roasted soffritto is something everyone does lol. I died a little when I saw that ahahah

That is awesome!

All I could think when they were talking about time. My bolognese takes me all day to make a 3-4 gallon batch to freeze and for the family to eat for a while.

Boiling stuff in tomato seems to slow it down quite considerably for some reason. The easier way to do it is to cook the sauce and pasta separately at first, but keep the starchy water you cooked the pasta in, not just drain it down the sink. Add the pasta to the sauce with tongs or whatever then add a bit of pasta water at a time (remember it's salty) to kind of "cohere" it. That way the pasta and sauce combine much better than the way a lot of British people do of just draining the pasta off and then dumping the sauce on top. I believe that's the way most pasta dishes are done traditionally, not just bolognese.

They are either trolling us and they actually taste the difference or using the blandest bay leaves in existence, the ones we have in my garden or even in a random hedge along the road smell very strong and there's no way you don't taste at least a little flavour

@@voidwalker9939 it might also depend if the leave is still fresh or dried. My mother also has bay leaf growing in her garden and discovered that they release there flavour better when dried. We just pluck a branch from the hedge and hang it in a shelter to air dry them.

What are the chances 😆. How are you making yours?

​@@SortedFoodWow .....

Are you going with Barry's hack approach, or Mike's almost-traditional approach?

@@SortedFood soffrito (forgot to buy garlic tho), minced beef, pancetta, italian red, stock, tomato passata and serving mine with casarecce and parmesan 😊 not traditional, but certainly gets the job done

@@toni_go96 neither haha, but closer to Mikes. I do it my own way (which isn't even always the same)

Fair point

I couldn't agree more....really enjoy these guys for years.

Sadly I have worked with people that do that... Every day seems to be their first

This! Almost every sauce or stew needs _time_. And when you think "this must have been long enough by now": add another hour 🙂

Ben loved it when Mike made that cheese stuffed venison ball...

Glutamate occurs in a lot of things that you'd associate with savoury flavour - Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce, soy sauce, mushrooms, tomatoes - given its a significant part of that flavour sensation. MSG is more like a refined salt of that specific chemical that occurs in those foods which you can add into food to boost that specific glutamate flavour.

One of the most delicious pasta dishes I've had is literally just spaghetti cooked in goat broth, with a dry white cheese (from sheep or goat) grated on top. It's a traditional dish in Crete (Greece). The broth is from actual meat, not any of the hack versions, and the flavour it adds to the pasta is just incredible. So simple and so delicious!

this is the kind of comment that I wish I had never read . . .

I thought it looked like a cake pan too! 😂

Sounds good!

Great suggestion! Love that show!

Hope you enjoy!

​@@SortedFoodYou guys are awesome 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

@@ori-yorudanwent straight above your head, hasn’t it mate

@user-tj8ub4of2c well I have been cooking for 20+ years a sofrito has garlic. Everything they call sofrito never has had garlic in it, thus making it a mirepoix.

Semantics Barry even added garlic later because you forgot to put it in there.

@animalsmistakenformonsters1492 it's not semantics it either is or it isn't period.

agreed so Mike shouting to the sauce to hurry up was just wrong, Bolognese is typically a 3 hour dish

@@remonacuschieri6871 3 hours bare minimum. Also you don't need all the herbs.

Im not too crazy then, when they were nearing the hour mark and panicking becuase it took too long I was confused. Felt like it was a very speedy attempt.

@@magus2003 Yeah, me too. I need to copy Mike's technique...especially that tomato sauce at the end trick.

I hope so! 🤣

Yay! Thank you!

​@@SortedFoodYou guys are incredible 🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤❤

There is a reason why Italians have been cooking their Bolognese the way Mike did it for centuries 🙂 You can also do everything in one pot: just fry off the Soffritto, then add the meat into it, let it brown a bit while mixing it with the veg, deglaze with wine, add tomato passata and bayleaf. The tomato paste & stock aren't really necessary if you have a good passata (after all Bolognese is primarily a meat sauce, so the tomato should not overpower it; and when you don't use tomato paste you also don't need stock - the meat will be enough for a rich, umami flavor). Bolognese should cook _slowly_ with the lid on for a least an hour, to bring out all the juices and flavor from the meat - just like with almost any stew-like dish: the longer the better; it can softly bubble away for hours (stir occasionally and add a splash of water if it gets too dry). Nearing the end of the cooking time remove the lid, remove the bayleaf, season with salt and pepper and let the excess moisture evaporate to get a thick sauce. A classical way to serve Bolognese (or any thick pasta sauce) is the 'mantecatura' technique: cook the pasta to about 80% done; scoop a portion of sauce into a hot pan, and let reheat; then add the pasta, including a good amount of pasta water, and finish cooking it in the sauce (basically what Mike did, but in a much more controlled way). Add more pasta water until you get the desired consistency; the dissolved starch in the water will give the dish a smooth and creamy finish. This also works very well to quickly heat up a portion of Bolognese from the fridge or freezer (just make sure it's hot before adding the pasta, so that it can continue cooking). And if you desperately want to use some form of milk in this dish (apart from cheese), now at the very end would be the time to add a small knob of butter.