Type in a search query and get searchin... the truth is out there somewhere.. ehem.. can?t belive i just said that 
http://vivisimo.com/

there seems to be search options on the left..
try indian curry secret ingredient..
hey its worth a try  :

BTW, has anyone asked an indian chef what they think the secret ingredient might be?
ie: Why some curries taste that extra bit nicer than others?
The alternative is to find a recip? from a chef who hasn?t got that something extra
and therefore deduct what hes "doing wrong"

Quote from: Ashes_Saag on October 02, 2005, 07:29 PM
BTW, has anyone asked an indian chef what they think the secret ingredient might be?

Yeah quite a few people on here have including myself and I've always been told there is no secret ingredient.  I've recentley been on a Bangladesh food forum and asked on there only to be told the same thing and that its down to the quantity of spices used that dictates how the curry comes out.  The chefs are secretive because its how they make their living, I once had a demo arranged with a chef only for him to let me down due to the fact that he had been told by his manager that if he told anyone it would be more than his jobs worth 

Yes, it?s something ive been thinking long and hard about
but i can tell you a story that you might be interested in

This year i was taken out by my work friends to celebrate
my birthday, they took me to an indian restaurant (in Stockholm)
there were 14 ppl there, so they decided to order
everything on the menu. (well, tasters)
Well... what they actually ordered was a kind of taster for
every dish (more or less). So there were several dishes in
small bowls, everyone (apart from the vegetarian) took a
spoonful of what was on offer..

This gave  us a great chance to taste of what was on offer.
One "dishe" stood out and this is the great mystery!!
Ive been cooking curry dishes for 15 years but have never
managed to create this taste. This taste i believe is "The Taste".
The secret and missing ingredient in all our dishes.

Now to confuse the issue more the dishe in quesion was
what they called "do-piaza", now as you would expect this
was going to be an onion dish with lots of onions.
what I was presented with was a bowl filled with fried onions.
This wasn?t any old fried onions though.
The dish was infact colourless!
It tasted of onion (no surprises) but it was cooked as if
it was finely chopped onion fried at a very high heat.
The onions were colourless but tasted very spicey

How did they do it? I have no idea.
The only possible explanation is (I can think of) is
they somehow managed to create a dishe by
using some kind of barger (ie; spices fried in oil which are usually
added to lentil dishes to create more flavour)
Some kind of boquet garni of spices which they
fried the onions in.. there was definately no colour
but it tasted delicious and had "the flavour".

the only explation I can think of is
there was some kind of oil/ghee combined with high heat
+ maybe MSG
or some kind of ingredient that is trade only

The ingredient is probably some kind of oil/ghee that
is sold in bulk to restaurants only.

I don?t believe there is a "secret ingredient" the secret is
probably only a product of the trade. I can?t believe that
every chef who has been through thier training has spent time
in England. As ive said, Im english living in Sweden,
the "secret Ingredient" is here too.

Not so long ago Ii was at a bangladeshi restaurant and got
talking to the chef.. I ordered a balti (yes balti has arrived here,
although only within the last few years) and he had no idea
about the origins on the "balti" also no idea about the
secret ingredient (judging by the meal, although it was nice).

Now i draw a couple of conclusions here
1. The secret ingredient isnt just english
2. Not all bangladeshi chefs know about it,
3. The secret isnt old oil as the do-piaza would
have been coloured by the culmination of  mixed
curry oil.

Does this help? Maybe but I suspect it only deepens the
mystery.

The answer is probably some kind of oil/ghee that is
sold to the trade which combined with frying at high
heat creates some kind of extra element.

I still think some indian chefs must suspect or even know
what it is but their best option is to create the myth that it is
a secret ingredient, its their living they need to make the
profit margins.

Thanks for that A.S.

To me you have given a detailed and fantastic summary of your experience which paints a picture we can all relate to.
You have obviously tried to assimilate what is "going on" in the preparation of the final dish and all credit to you for that.

I think we can all relate to the general taste of our curries but sometimes there is a particular taste that stands out as unusual and more to the point the taste we are all striving to achieve.
In the book "100 Best Balti Curries" there is a "Boquet Garni" recipe that can be added to the base sauce. It gives an extra boost to the final flavour of the dish. I wonder if this is relevant to that taste you have experienced??

I agree it isn't in the Oil that is used and am not convinced M.S.G. has anything to do with it. I havn't seen M.S.G. in my local indian supermarket yet or am I not looking hard enough?? Then again does a restaurant have the time or need to add a Boquet Garni to it's base or dishes?

And I think you are also quite right that this so called special ingredient does not exist except in the eyes of those ( like us ) who strive to achieve that special answer to a mystery we long to find the answer to but have difficulty finding!.

As you say the creation of a restaurant curry is the same no matter which continent we live so to me it stands to reason there is no real "secret" to the process of making it.?
To me the initial base sauce is important but the subsequent addition of spices to create the dish you require is even more critical.
Just think of the Kriss Dhillon base. It is such a good? start to any curry ( it tates great by itself ), but when you add the spices it suggests it can totally spoil the final result! Why is that??

Your contribution inspires thought into this fascinating subject and makes the solution to the mystery ever more the focal point of what we strive to find.
Thamks for that!

Ray?

Quote from: raygraham on October 02, 2005, 10:06 PM
I agree it isn't in the Oil that is used and am not convinced M.S.G. has anything to do with it. I havn't seen M.S.G. in my local indian supermarket yet or am I not looking hard enough?? Then again does a restaurant have the time or need to add a Boquet Garni to it's base or dishes?

Hi Ray,

My local asian grocer has it, a lot will have it but not called MSG, my local BIR also has a box of it, in my experience it doesnt add anything to our curries