Topic: Oil wont seperate

[Peripatetic Phil]

Oil separation is one thing, Rob, but you seem to be suggesting that some or all of the separated oil should be skimmed off.  Is this the case, and if so, at what point would you recommend skimming ?

** Phil.

[Kashmiri Bob]

Don't understand Phil.  Where have I suggested that separated oil should be skimmed off?

Rob 

[Peripatetic Phil]

Well, in lots of places in your immediately preceding post, Rob, such as when you write "you are stuck with the oil in your curry, plus potentially the additional oil" and "The result is an oil-laden curry", but perhaps most specifically when you write of "the need to have control ...".  If you don't skim it off, how do you "have control of how much of it ends up in a curry, and when" ?

** Phil.

[Garp]

Good point, well presented ....

[Kashmiri Bob]

Well, in lots of places in your immediately preceding post, Rob, such as when you write "you are stuck with the oil in your curry, plus potentially the additional oil" and "The result is an oil-laden curry", but perhaps most specifically when you wrote of "need to have control ...".  If you don't skim it off, how do you "have control of how much of it ends up in a curry, and when" ?

** Phil.

Phil.  Providing that the oil is separated from the base, it is fairly straightforward to control how much of the oil goes into a curry.  I use a ladle.  Do you mean skimming off oil from a finished dish?  If so obviously this is entirely up to the chef/personal preference.

Rob 

[Peripatetic Phil]

OK, so now I understand.  Having separated, even though you store both separated oil and aqueous base in the same container, you take advantage of the fact that they occupy two separate layers to decide what fraction of each to add.  It can't give you the accuracy of control that skimming the oil off and storing it separately would give, but nonetheless it seems to me to be very probably the same technique that BIRs might use, in just the same way that they use one spoon for (virtually) everything whereas we tend to have our 1/4, 1/2, 1 teaspoon, 1 tablespoon, etc measures --  i.e., they favour simplicity over complexity for obvious reasons.

** Phil.

[Beatdown]

these are very good replies, thank you very much Phill & Rob

now i have a follow up question.

what is the secret or  your technique to getting the oil to separate?

[Peripatetic Phil]

In my base, I do not worry.  In fact, I actually want a homogeneous base.  SNS's description of the Saffron base states specifically that the oil should come as the final phase of the base preparation [1], but I use a different base (Kris Dhillon's) and for her base there is no apparent need to achieve oil separation other than during the cooking of the final dish.

** Phil.

[1] See image below