Topic: Question about "The taste" or "the smell".

[Woks Up]

OK guys, rant over, and thanks for the apology WoksUp.  Toys are back in the pram.
CP  ;D

There you go CP!  As I suspected, everybody loves you! 

...but, just to clarify, I didn't actually apologise...you see...it wasn't me that threw my toys out of the pram!....but I do forgive you! 

"Enough of this Zwilling J A Henkels at thirty paces!" I say (though, personally, I prefer my rusty old swiss army knife! )

So please continue with your interesting and informative posts!

Group hug anybody?   :

[DARTHPHALL]

Ive told you before those of us that have turned to the Darkside don't do group hugs, we do mind hugs  ;D.

Your ever evil & Dark companion.
.....DARTHPHALL.....

Back on the subject of taste smell, i did an experiment with Spices yesterday & it seems that if you just chuck them in & cook for just a few minutes they are really evident in your Curry,(potentially & logically a Bir can use less this way) do you all think that all our cooking in various ways could be a wrong concept & that we should just warm the base bung in the Spices cook for say 3-5 Min's & thats that.
And has anyone found that Chilli powder loses its heat with cooking longer & is definitely less potent the next day although waiting next day does allow the curry to be tasty (but its that home-made tasty  no matter how nice it isn't Bir).
I get the feeling that you cant really get close to Bir taste unless you do a quick cook because of the way the Spices are affected by a quick fry & serve method, i will try some other experiments over the next few weeks, any ideas peeps?

[George]

Darth

>has anyone found that Chilli powder loses its heat with
>cooking longer & is definitely less potent the next

I must say I haven't noticed any decrease in chilli heat over time. Also, Indian food dishes in the supermarkets would become milder for every day they were on the shelf, which seems unlikely. Another thought is that security type 'pepper spray' devices like some Police forces use are based on chillis (some of them anyway). These would have a very short shelf life if the strength of the active ingredient went rapidly downhill. But that's not the case.

Also, I find Inciaan food mainatins its quality well over a few hours or even the next day, like when served at a buffet. I don't find that Chinese food fares anywhere near as well.

Regards
George

[Ashes]

Chilli heat is chemical and spices contain oils generally and both evaporate under heat, but how much i have no idea. Now whether its actually the oil that evaporates or whether its actually the oil hitching a ride on water droplets i dont know,ask a scientist, but if you fry chips alot you will have to clean your cookerhood filter alot. Chemicals do evaporate otherwise you?d never be able to get a hit of your pipe

A point about the smell.. Yellow Fingers did a very interesting experiment to see if he got desensitised, he said the BIR smell seemed alot stronger and he could smell "the smell", (read his post). This was an excellent experiment and showed that the "smell" is something particular to certain BIRs. This is also what others have found, that the smell is much more over-powering than the ones we do at home, sounds very simular to the kind of smell that you get when you cook a dish with lots of garlic.

I would think to retain as much flavour as possible you would need to simmer (very carefully) your base sauce. Professional chefs never boil their stock.. all that steam carries flavour, i would imagine its the same for base sauces.. Darth talked a alot about the oven method.. the oven warms food slower than direct heat, this makes the onions sweeter but could also release the spices better/differently.. im sure CP knows alot more than me about spice releasing.

Ashes

[DARTHPHALL]

I do understand what you are all saying but none the less recently i have noticed a drop in heat the next day on all the Dishes I've cooked, it is fresh newly opened Chilli powder so its not down to age degradation (unlike myself   ).

[Ashes]

Maybe you have become the ultimate chilli head.. there is nothing that can touch you darth,

youll end up sucking on dorset nagas just to get a mild hit

[Chilli Prawn]

I agree with Darth that Chilli, especially fresh, loses heat over a period of time and I think Ashes has hit the nail on the head regarding process.  I would add my theory but not necessarily correct; the capsicain oil which is the lethal hot stuff in Chillis changes its chemical structure and concentration when cooked (try deep frying those squat pointy chillis I think they are called Bells - they are delicious and not too hot after frying).  When we started serious cooking, e.g. outside catering we had to get the hang of Chillis and what they do.  We often found when clearing up after peoples parties that the hot curry which everyone said they would not eat had gone and there was always some mild stuff left.  We did our research, and we found out three things:

1. The hot curry was no longer that hot (we used to dip some bread in the bits of sauce left).

2.  It was the other ingredients and the richness of the sauce that off set the heat factor, e.g. oil and tomato paste.

3.  If we added an acidifier like lemon, tomatoes, or vinegar at the end to crack open the final flavour, the heat factor would diminish slowly over a period of time.

This is why I say never taste a curry when you are making it, learn to use you other senses.  I will agre with others who have posted that you can get desensitized during cooking which will misguide you on get the balance correct.  I always ask my wife or son to do a taste check at the end as I can gauge their reactions and make any adjustments without tasting.

Just a note on 3.  Has anyone posted before on the use of acidifiers?  When I was taught, the chef always used an acidifier to bring out the final flavour, whether this be a base or dish..  I was told this was a regular BIR technique as well as a normal approach for ethnic dishes.  Maybe this is one of the things you are searching for.

Happy searching
CP

[DARTHPHALL]

Tell us more about acidifiers oh mighty Prawn 

[DARTHPHALL]

Does the amount of Oil in the Curry also play a part on the preservation of the heat by Chilli powder or fresh Chillies?

[Chilli Prawn]

In my opinion yes.  Try cooking the same dish twice; one with minimum oil and one with lots.  You will see what happens, And my guess is the one with minumum oil will lose its fierceness first and the second will mellow better.  Also look at the colour of the oil, the redness is mainly due to the chilli powder and turmeric..  So one could assume thats is where it goes.  See this interesting link to the Vietnam daily 
http://www.saigontimesweekly.saigonnet.vn/issue31/business.htm

Must eat, before I go Hypo'

Cheers
CP