That taste (again)

[Mark J]

OK this thread is again an attempt to bring together all the ideas on that illusive restaurant taste.

To my mind this can be one of 4 things:

1) An ingredient or specific preperaton of an ingredient
2) A taste generated by the cooking process of a BIR e.g. cooking 20 litres of sauce for 4 days on end
3) The fundamental difference between going to a BIR and having one at home
4) Technique


1) First off I have to say I agree with Pete, Ive been in a number of kitchens and there isn't a secret spice or ingredient that creates this taste.

One thing to bear in mind is BIR's use a lot of oil, I had a chilli masala tonight from my local and it was swimming, probably at least 3 TBSP of oil visible.

Other secret ingredients I have read about are garlic powder, tomato ketchup and a spoon of tandoori marinade in a dish towrad the end of the cooking process. I think there may be something in garlic powder but not the rest (haven't tried ketchup)

The other day I cooked an authentic curry and it had a taste similar to the elusive BIR taste, the only ingredient I could see that may have caused this was the initial fried crushed garlic. The recipe was for ~3 people and started with 8 plump cloves of crushed garlic.


2) The bottom line is the BIR kitchen is creating base sauce for a lot of dishes and a lot keep the sauce for ~4 days.  This will be hard to replicate unless we all take it in turns to come round to one another's houses for curry!



3) The most depressing possibility  . When we go for a curry we take a walk through the fresh air full of anticipation, our senses aren't dulled by an hour long cooking process. Of course its going to taste great!

I will be testing this in future by getting my missus to cook a curry from my base sauce (with strict instructions of course) and I will see if it is any different having not cooked it yourself (I doubt this is it)


4) The one the BIR's would like you to believe (when they aren't bullshitting about a secret spice).
Obviously a lot of BIR chefs are very adept at cooking curries, does this make a difference?

I will do a post in the near future about my curry cooking technique but again I doubt this is really it.


If I had to point out one thing that I thought was the root of the taste I would say it is related to garlic in some way.

[pete]

1) An ingredient or specific preperaton of an ingredient
2) A taste generated by the cooking process of a BIR e.g. cooking 20 litres of sauce for 4 days on end
3) The fundamental difference between going to a BIR and having one at home
4) Technique

I went out last night and bought the two smallest containers of vegetable and butter ghee.
(the vegetable ghee container is massive, it will go off before I can use it all)
I tried adding vegetable ghee to one of the curry bases.
I thought that might be it.
It isn't.
I'll try the butter ghee next time.
I'm still boiling the base for another couple of hours, maybe it will change.
The two other ideas I have is the "making a large quantity" theory,
and the oil they salvage from the curry gravy being old and very seasoned.
I have seen the oil being taken off a cooked curry and put back into the curry gravy pot.
Maybe at a later stage in the evening they scoop out this oil again.
There would be such a combination of flavours in the oil.
Maybe some old curry gravy goes into new curry gravy.
There are no hidden ingredients, it is? something they do.
Something so obvious they don't even think to tell us at the demonstrations.

[pete]

Curryqueen seems sure it's the green peppers.

Quote:-
"kitchens - low cost which is onions, carrots, pots etc and then you will smell the missing ingredient that is in there!? It is the green peppers I am almost sure.? The gravy from the other chef, used when cooking a curry was spot on too - no mistake!"

Could it be?
The base I just cooked has them in, maybe it will turn out correct.

[Mark J]

I have just cooked a base with a green pepper and it didnt seem to be anything different.

Actually thinking about it, it could well be the oil off the curry gravy that is the taste, reused.

I was present in a takeaway kitchen at change over time from one pot of old gravy to the new, they didnt just mix in the old, it was very thick by this stage and they used half a ladle from old and half from new.

I still think your base with 600ml of oil is the best Pete, in fact im tempted to lob in a litre and skim it off. When I have skimmed of curry base oil before it does smell like that taste if you see what I mean  ;D

The chilli masala I had last was swimming in the red oil, im sure it cant have got that colour from just the curry itself