Topic: Consistent results - do you get it?

[George]

I've cooked more curries in the past three months than in the previous three years. About 1 in 3 have produced fine flavours, whatever they are. That's what I'm looking for - fine flavours. But I can't produce consistent results, like a Big Mac will taste almost identical, anywhere in the world, at any time.

Perhaps it's because I haven't mastered fundamental techniques so, even when I think I'm repeating the same approach, I may not actually be doing so.

Can you achieve consistently good results, time after time, when cooking sauce-based dishes?

[Peripatetic Phil]

Can you achieve consistently good results, time after time, when cooking sauce-based dishes?

No   But I would rather have variability and real, home-cooked, lovingly-prepared food than a Big Mac (or a Small Mac, or any sort of Mac [1]) any day of the week.

But to anticipate Stephen's answer below, no two curries are even intentionally the same; I regard the process as a learning opportunity, and so each curry differs in some way from all those I have cooked recently.

** Phil
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[1] Now if we were to speak of a Burger King Bacon Double Cheeseburger XL meal, Supersized, you might get a different answer !

[Stephen Lindsay]

Good question George and I think in the main that I do achieve consistent results, with the reasons for that being as follows:

1. practice - I've been cooking two different curries (for g/g and me) on average 5 nights a week for the past two years.
2. repetition of method - Taz base, BE spice mix, PC Tandoori Masala, regardless of the actual curry
3. sticking to the recipe - I measure as closely as I can and follow my recipes as close to the letter as I can, therefore I'm not cooking or measuring by eye and I find that if I don't do that then variation is introduced and the results are not as expected

[goncalo]

I also find my korma's to come out consistently with very little variation in flavour and texture. I would call this consistency, but if we are to look into the real meaning of the word, then I don't really go all the way as even my favourite TAs and restaurants never really been consistent.

[spiceyokooko]

Can you achieve consistently good results, time after time, when cooking sauce-based dishes?

Yes and no.

Yes when I want to by simply repeating known processes that lead to a known quantity. I can consistently recreate dishes using the same ingredients and techniques that result in a known enjoyable dish.

No, because I'm constantly changing things and deliberately doing something different just to see what the result will be.

I'm currently experimenting on the point at which salt and methi leaves are added to the cooking process. The current results seem to indicate that salt should be added as early as possible and methi leaves after the final batch of base has gone in and the dish is left to simmer. I've never fully understood why methi leaves are added at the same time as the spice mix.

I've also done quite a lot of recent experimentation on the amount of base to use in a single dish and how many ladles (or chef spoons, I use a ladle) of it should be reduced prior to adding the rest. I've been getting some good results (more depth of flavour and complexity) by reducing 3 separate ladles of base over a high heat before adding the remainder. Which means 500ml of base is used rather then 300ml generally recommended. I'm still working on this at the moment.

[George]

Yes when I want to by simply repeating known processes that lead to a known quantity. I can consistently recreate dishes using the same ingredients and techniques that result in a known enjoyable dish.

Thanks everyone for the interesting responses so far. Yes, I mean I often fail to recreate the fine flavours I seek, even when I'm trying my hardest to repeat the same approach I used before.

[spiceyokooko]

Yes, I mean I often fail to recreate the fine flavours I seek, even when I'm trying my hardest to repeating the same approach I used before.

Interesting.

But even more interesting is why you think that might be? Why do you personally think you're not getting repeatable results?

[Malc.]

Thanks everyone for the interesting responses so far. Yes, I mean I often fail to recreate the fine flavours I seek, even when I'm trying my hardest to repeating the same approach I used before.

What do you feel is the cause of this George?

I've noticed a difference when my spices are getting 'stale' and if i'm cooking ad hoc, but generally when following a recipe I tend to get the desired results. That's not to say I don't have disasters from time to time, as i'm sure we all do.

[George]

What do you feel is the cause of this George?

The cause of my typing error when I wrote "repeating" rather than "repeat" is due to the sudden return of a sluggish forum. I realised my mistake seconds after posting but it took ages for the 'modify' screen to come up. Then it said curry-recipes was unavailable by which time the typing error had been quoted twice.

The probable cause of my apparent failure to replicate a successful recipe is that I've been experimenting when I come across fine flavours in the first place. I don't write down everything I do before I add stuff to the pan. Then I try to recall what I did, after a successful fry-up, and make a few notes. But my 'recipes' don't tend to work again.

[Peripatetic Phil]

The probable cause of my apparent failure to replicate a successful recipe is that I've been experimenting when I come across fine flavours in the first place. I don't write down everything I do before I add stuff to the pan. Then I try to recall what I did, after a successful fry-up, and make a few notes. But my 'recipes' don't tend to work again.

I know that feeling