Quote from: smokenspices on January 03, 2008, 03:03 PM
Also the e-bay seller claims the spices alone would cost over 20.00 quid. I really don't think so.

They probably did cost him 20 quid for huge bags before being split down to sell on at massive profit 

Problem is you if you leave honest feedback on ebay you would probably receive negative feedback in return 

Thanks for letting us know anyway.

I can't see how the seller hopes to make any money from this.
At ?4.28 a pop he has to:

- go out and buy the spices, presumably in bulk
- buy the packets to put them in
- print labels for the packets and label them
- weight out the spices in to the packets
- seal the packets (says vacuum packed so add cost of equipment)
- print and laminate a recipe card (add cost of plastic and laminator)
- buy CDs, copy them, print labels for them
- put the lot in some packaging and go off to post it

The profit on each pack can hardly cover his costs, and then
he effectively has no repeat business as his customers can
subsequently get the spices from any asian shop more cheaply.

Quote from: fumble on January 03, 2008, 04:30 PM
- seal the packets (says vacuum packed so add cost of equipment)

Not vacuum packed. Just normal seal bags.

But you're right, I can't see him making much on each transaction.

Despite everything, as far as it goes he's done a good job. Can't knock him for trying.
;D

Sorry, did try to stop you. Always hard to resist though when someone declares the secret! With regards to the quality of the curry, i personally didn't like it but my brother in law absolutely loved it.

Ian

Quote from: George on January 03, 2008, 07:38 PM
SnS

Many thanks for posting the recipes, and so quickly too!

I agree it looks like KD's recipes plus enough changes to introduce an element of doubt. The main changes in the base sauce ingredients are:

1.5 to 2 pints of chicken stock (20% of KD amount and she uses plain water)
1 tsp salt (33% of KD)
1 tin chopped tomatoes (what sized tin?! - useless recipe)
8 tablespoons veg oil (33% of KD)
2 tsp turmeric (66% of KD)
2 tsp paprika (66% of KD)

But he makes up for less salt in the base sauce, with what seems like a huge quantity in the stage 2 recipe. Could a takeaway-sized portion of curry contain as much as 4 tsp salt, plus underlying salt in the base sauce?

Then he says: "half a Jif lemon juice". Does that mean half a complete container?

I agree that, to many people, this item would represent a fair deal, at the price. I just hope he's being honest about having paid to get the recipe friom a curry house. If not, it's a shame that some people would stoop that low to tell such a lie.

Regards
George

Hi George,

Your post made me go back and dig out my KD recipe.  I'm confused by your percentages.

I'm not sure how much 6 onions are supposed to weigh, but I'm guessing that unless they're large-ish, they won't weigh 900g will they?  Seems like this one has less than hers.
Both the salt and the oil are the same for the base sauce, but the turmeric and paprika are actually 200% the amount in the KD recipe I have.  it's also missing the tomato puree.  Not having enough experience with trying different bases yet, I'm not sure how much difference that would make, but as KD doesn't use more turmeric or paprika in her curry recipe, that, plus the potential lesser amount of onions and lack of tomato puree (even if it's only 1 tsp) could be enough to alter the taste.

I agree that the salt is loads more, but then so is the garam masala and cumin.  The chilli amount should make it a madras by the book.  Based on the directions presented, I think it would turn out sorta strange, myself.  After that much simmering at the final curry stage, I think the spices would be well blended, but they certainly wouldn't jump out at you the way I think they do in a typical BIR curry--certainly not if they were fried (dry or paste) as part of making the final curry.

Again, according to the KD book, said amount should make 8 servings of curry (enough for 6-8 people), so I don't think it's a "standard" takeaway size they're going for.  Even with simmering for such a long time, I don't think it would reduce all that much unless it was a pretty hard simmer...

Did you also notice how much difference there is in the cooking times?  I think SnS is right.  It's got to result in some sort of pseudo-base/curry hybrid.  It doesn't factor in any time for cooking the curry part (approx 10 min, KD style), and it only brings the whole lot to the boil initially.

Re: Jif lemon, yes, that's gotta be half a container.  They're roughly lemon sized bottles of lemon juice (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jif_(lemon_juice)).  I've never seen them outside the US, but I used to use them occasionally for making cocktails, etc. when I lived there.

Maybe since whoever is selling this recipe paid for the KD book and that's supposed to be based on her restaurant, he can get away with saying he paid to get the recipe from a curry house.  Maybe it really is a curry house recipe, but I don't think they'd end up selling much of it--except maybe between 3-5am here in Dublin on Thursday-Saturday nights! ;D