Topic: Why Can't I Get That BIR Taste & Aroma?

[ELW]

No offence but 8kg of onions, then peeled is what I can get in my 11.5 litre pot so I wouldn't call this a definitive large scale test by any means, no offence. Even more so when you use 2 tins of tomato for 7-8kg of onion. This is home scale and lasts me a short time. A TA wouldn't last 5 mins.

I'm struggling to see how 8kg of onion has been touted as the large scale test and used as an example or the sense to suggest its large scale. It reads like a fuddled small scale base.

Hi harley, this was just an obvious attempt at scaling up at home by an experienced home cook. At how many ltrs do you reckon the test becomes accurate?  12, 30 or 60 litre as in the restaurant vids. Does Bir gravy become bir gravy at 60 litres? or can it be done in say 44?
As for the tomato content, check abdulmohed's version on cr0, whichs uses 400gm tomatoes with 4 large onions. Some recipe's i've seen don't even use garlic in the base.

Regards
ELW

[JerryM]

i put a small amount of veg ghee in all base (30g in 800g onion). you could use more depends on your own needs.

[harley]

Hi harley, this was just an obvious attempt at scaling up at home by an experienced home cook. At how many ltrs do you reckon the test becomes accurate?  12, 30 or 60 litre as in the restaurant vids. Does Bir gravy become bir gravy at 60 litres? or can it be done in say 44?
As for the tomato content, check abdulmohed's version on cr0, whichs uses 400gm tomatoes with 4 large onions. Some recipe's i've seen don't even use garlic in the base.

Regards
ELW

The discussion here was full scale, ie what restaurants do that we don't. Does it make a difference to our scaled down efforts. The distinction is small home vs your typical restaurant/takeaway. People cited haldi experiment as big base, full size, the thread title was making a full size base at home. If you want to say that the haldi thread was a scaled down version then its just like any scaled down version done here and doesn't need mentioning in reference to full size base and is just another scaled down base. Others, not me, have said perhaps from memory or poor reading how haldi did a full size base etc.

At how many ltrs do you reckon the test becomes accurate?  12, 30 or 60 litre as in the restaurant vids. Does Bir gravy become bir gravy at 60 litres? or can it be done in say 44?

Thanks for being silly.

Can you not grasp the notion of small home scale to what we understand to be full size? No-one is drawing a line. The question was asked does the large restaurant pot make a difference to our smaller pots. Can you not acknowledge that this means a large gap between the two without going into silly notions of exactly what litre it is?

[wasp-598]

I always thought that smell was from the set up in BIR kitchens, most seem to have onion bhaji oil on top of the cooker as well as base gravy and uncovered spices not to mention the currys that are cooking at the time and that smell leaves the kitchen through the fan extractor.

Try watching more youtube BIR videos and see where they leave all that stuff right under the fan extractor!


I would not want to do that in my kitchen

[goncalo]

Wow, this was a really interesting discussion. Thanks to all for sharing your thoughts and for making BIR look more like a science!

I would like to throw another thought into the mixture, but I'll make it in the form of a question. At what temperature do BIRs keep their base throughout the day and how frequently do they re-heat it?

I've seen videos of stockpots of base on top of BIRs and I've never noticed them having any flame going underneath, which sort of suggests they probably only turn the heat up every now and then - if at all. Thoughts?

[Secret Santa]

I've seen videos of stockpots of base on top of BIRs and I've never noticed them having any flame going underneath, which sort of suggests they probably only turn the heat up every now and then - if at all. Thoughts?

The base sauce pot is kept on a low heat at all times. You can't see the flame because the pots are so large they cover the burner. The debate has often arisen as to how much difference to the taste it makes if you get a curry made from the first ladle from the pot or one a few hours later from the last ladle. Many people claim that a curry bought later in the evening, and so presumably made when the pot's nearly empty, has greater depth of flavour. But, of course, that might also be influenced by the amount of beer imbibed proir to the tasting!  ;D

[markh3565]

I'm certain the taste comes from the oil and garlic contained within the base and not its content, the longer the cooking time the more that taste develops and releases the flavour back into the base.

Also the oil used at the intial stages of cooking the dish, interesting over the last 4 months ive used filtered bhajee oil - not spiced oil or fresh veg oil and my curries have had the taste.

However the only explainations I can draw is in my base/cooking method/ingredients over the past 12 months are:-

Mooli instead of cabbage or potato in base - not conclusive
More oil in base - conclusive
More garlic in base - conclusive
Seasoned bhajee oil - not conclusive
Garlic paste over garlic/ginger paste in dish - conculsive
Rajah gold madras curry powder in mix powder - not conclusive
No jemon dressing in hotter dishes - conculsive

Although I'm not convienced on some of the variables above put them all together then is this where the last 5% is??

Your thoughts!!!!!!!!

[goncalo]

No jemon dressing in hotter dishes - conculsive

This is something that I have been using a lot lately and I need to experiment without again! Glad you pointed it out, because it does give me something to try in my next curry.

[markh3565]

Cant quite put my finger on the lemon dressing thing in the hotter dishes, seems to reduce the intensitivey of the heat of the final dish.

However I'm now using Mr Naga's pickle in hotter dishes so it might be something to do with that.

Lemon dressing seems to work better in the less spiced dishes where you are using say methi leaf and mix powder and garam massala only

Back to the base thread by SS the base I now use takes two days to finish and uses high heat to boil then low heat/duration to extract the oil back out of the base

[George]

Many people claim that a curry bought later in the evening, and so presumably made when the pot's nearly empty, has greater depth of flavour.

It could come from 'extras' which some BIRs chuck into the base sauce quite frequently or, at least, used to, as they are cooking final curries. I recently watched a bit of the Balti cooking video (old VHS tape, late 80s or early 90s). I'm sure the chef skims off stuff (surplus oil most likely) and puts it in the big pot of base sauce. I think I've seen it done in other videos (youtube etc) too. Why would they do that, unless it improves the flavour.