Topic: Oh, I give up

[acrabat]

For the last twenty five years I have been chasing the elusive 5%. It has got to the point were I can identify the ingredients in a restaurants base e.g. whether it includes G/G.cabbage,carrot, coriander etc. I can pinpoint the flavour of cardamon (black and green), cassia,cloves,cumin etc. I can do this with a couple of mouthfuls of a basic curry. I can even tell how long the G/G has been cooked for and at what cooking stage ginger has been added. That last five percent has eluded me until now. Don't get me wrong I do not have an a solution to the final 5% but i believe I know what it is. It dawned on me a few days ago in a local greasy spoon round the corner from work. Everything in this establishment smells of a greasy spoon. Order a bread roll it smells of greasy spoon, take a can of coke from the chiller and as you are drinking it you can smell greasy spoon, order a ham salad and there is an odour of greasy spoon as you unwrap it and eat it. Indian take-away is no different. Everything that comes out is tainted by a smell that is a melange of everything that is cooked there.
I am now pretty sure that if any of us were to prep, cook and deliver a curry in an established BIR kitchen using any of the most popular recipes on this site it would have that missing taste. I am sure that the missing element is a permeating odor that builds up in BIR kitchens and 'taints' everything in it.
Even the small plastic containers my rice come in smell awesome. This is unfortunately why we cannot ever replicate BIR cooking at home.
In my opinion we should be striving not to replicate something we can never do but to use our combined experience to produce something that surpasses our our local establishments. I have seen and tried some recipes from this site that are better than anything anything I have ever had from a TA. I propose a new forum category entitled "Better than your BIR". Not to be filled with traditional indian cooking but only recipes members have found outstandingly tasty.
Opinion please.

[JerryM]

Love the idea of a better than category. Won't contain much at mo but a good yard stick for future progress

The rest is sort of twaddle. I think the question to ask is does you kitchen smell BIR and for how long. This is the only true test of the last 5%.

I cook in my garage and have to go in it each day. The smell lasts for almost 3 days.

[Garp]

An interesting theory, my friend. I'm not sure if it's the smell of the establishment, with regards curry, or something psychological....or some combination. When I order my favourite dish at a restaurant or TA, my senses are heightened as I expect it to be good...that is probably the extra 5% you speak of.

Me, I'm happy to settle for 95% and have no desire to outdo my local TA.

If you are watching a magician/illusionist, you may find the 'tricks' entertaining and enjoyable, but once you find out how it is done, it becomes less enjoyable and you wouldn't want to see it again. I'm kind of like that with curries...the few that I have 'cracked', I rarely make now because the magic has gone. So keep the last 5% as far as I'm concerned, and keep the magic alive

[acrabat]

Like you I am happy with my 95% and spend my curry cooking time experimenting finding different flavors. I thinks unless you are cooking curry, pakora, tikka, nan, chapatti etc all day every day we are not able to say out kitchen /garage replicates a BIR. Any idea who has the authority to create a new forum catagory?

[Peripatetic Phil]

Any idea who has the authority to create a new forum category?

The Man.  No-one else, not even our revered moderator I suspect.  All in favour of a "Better than your local BIR" topic, which given recent experiences in this particular part of Kent will not be too difficult to populate ...

** Phil.

[Stephen Lindsay]

I've never been convinced about the missing 5% theory and it seems on this forum to have taken hold somewhat. I have had countless curries in my area that were so poor that there has been a missing 25% plus. I've been cooking curries for some time now that I think are better than most BIRs in my area apart from two particular restaurants. I think it's also unreliable to judge a curry from its recipe because no recipe takes into account the skills of the person cooking it. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying I'm a BIR chef, but my curries have been getting better and better over the years to the point where I'm now satisfied I'm producing consistently good curries, and ones that those who eat them rave about.

[noble ox]

I reckon a lot of the missing 5% bit is in the mind
 I am satisfied with my results compared with the crap quality of some Birs.
Your probably cooking better currys than you think you are
Keep it simple and stick at it  ;D

[haldi]

You're not going to get 100% results unless you cook exactly like a BIR
I'm getting very close results now
After two recent demos, I watched the gas cooking levels
For at least three minutes the flames are all round the pan and coming right up the sides
You wouldn't waste that amount of gas, if it wasn't an essential part of the cooking process
You must double or triple how much gas you use
The temperature of the sauce must be getting ridiculously hot
Maybe that's not all of that 5%, but I reckon it's a large part of it
I know it's a controversial matter, but I no longer think you can get a BIR taste, without big heat

[Garp]

No offence, Haldi, but that is complete (moderated).

None of us have a commercial burner, but many seem to profess to having made curries better than restaurants/TAs.

[Donald Brasco]

The temperature of the sauce must be getting ridiculously hot

The temperature of the sauce is 100 degrees C. If you think differently you should maybe go back to school and learn some physics.

Clue: Heat is not the same as temperature.