With the age old debate over using specific base for specific recipes and the recent rally of comments regarding the forthcoming test of Bombay Aloo, I wondered if we might be able to find a way of overcoming the problem. Which, as we know, is a matter of practicality over making litre upon litre of different base to test the relevant recipes.

I came up with two scenarios that I think are worth exploring or at least discussing for the benefit of the tests and those members that are following the tests:

1. Prepare a small portion of base.
This in my mind raises only one question, is it possible to to scale down a base recipe to a fraction of its original amount and still end up with the same end result? My initial concerns are that the reduced quantities of spice etc., would have to be extremely accurate to produce the same result. Has anybody tried doing this with base before?

I also wonder whether cooking in small quantities might have an adverse affect as opposed to cooking in bulk. Of course ultimately, we would still have to cook out these individual base recipes.

2. Make a basic onion base with common ingredients.
Most base recipes share components. If we can create a basic onion base with the shared components, then we might be able to cook this in bulk but still make different base recipes by adding in the differing ingredients to smaller portions of it. My concern is whether it possible to omit certain components until a later stage of the cooking.

With the possibility of having to make five or six different base recipes, i'd favour the second option. How close could it get us, would it be close enough?

Cheers,

Malc.

Hi

I agree with both points of view but for me, especially when scoring something out of 10 say for taste, i need to have comparative dishes side by side in order to judge them as you can never really remember what that last curry actually tasted like!!

Just my thoughts

Barry

Axe, I am not sure if a smaller amount of base would work but it is a good idea, just that to make 5 separate small bases would be very time consuming I think?

Then you say about a standard base, which is a good idea but it still gives the same problem we already have, ie a specific base to a specific recipe will give a true reflection of the dish being tested, a standard one will not.

I think the group tests as Phil says are fundamentally flawed when it comes to side dishes, as is being shown in the Bombay Aloo thread (but I enjoy reading your findings so please carry on!).  I for one would have liked to join in with these but the time involved to do the side by side comparisons is something I cannot find.  On the other hand Phil's idea of a specific base & specific recipe of the month which I could do when it suited me along with the standard questionnaire is a great idea, and one I would more than likely join in most months, time permitting of course :

cheers

Will

ok axe, got it  ;D, that might work.  If my memory serves me right the KD1 base does something similar where you can freeze it before adding tomatoes etc at the 2nd stage.

I see the point, but at the risk of sounding like one of the perpetual whingers, what would we achieve ?  We aren't re-creating five or six authentic bases, but rather five or six variants of a single base in an attempt to replicate the five or six authentic bases that the five or six recipes call for.  I don't dismiss the idea, because I see it as a constructive suggestion, but I do wonder whether the final testing/tasting will really reveal as much as it might if each base were made exactly to spec.

** Phil.