Bolognese Sauce

I made Lidia Bastianich’s Bolognese Sauce (from the Italian American cookbook) today, with a couple of minor changes. I used 1 lb 7.25 oz of ground beef and 1 lb 2 oz ground pork instead of her suggested 1 lb beef and 1 lb pork. I increased the veggies by a little bit, but pretty much kept everything the same. The sauce was a little off, and I cannot put my finger on why. It was still very good, however.

Notes

1. Lidia indicates that the evaporating of the water and the browning of the meat will take about ten minutes. In my experience, this ends up being closer to 30-40 minutes. I have to push (and press) the meat to the sides, exposing a large well in the center of the pot where the water collects. The water will boil away over the course of about a half hour, and then it takes another 10 minutes or so for the browning.
2. I used dry bay leaves in this batch, and I am pretty sure I used fresh ones last time. Fresh bay keeps for so long, and is cheaper, so I really should try to keep it on hand more often.
3. 3 cups of canned tomatoes = 1 can.
4. These were a new brand of tomatoes, so that may have contributed to the flavor
5. I ended up with close to 9 cups of sauce, instead of the 6 cups she predicts in the recipe
6. Next time...
• I want to use fresh bay leaves, I want to know if there is a difference, in general, between dried and fresh bay.
  
• I am going to weigh the veggies before chopping, maybe an simple ratio could be found.
• It might be fun to use beef, pork or chicken stock in place of water to replace the evaporated water.