Topic: Who believes there is a secret ingredient to the curry base?

[Bobby Bhuna]

Nice one SnS! We've found the "taste"! Use Okra with Tomato soup as your base sauce. Job done.
It really does smell like cream of tomato soup though... I might try this in my base instead of canned tomatoes.

[George]

...Only way to check to see if that authentic smell is being produced is to get someone else (a curry head preferably) to walk past your kitchen door when you're cooking ... or even ask the down-wind neighbours, I'm sure they'll soon comment on the smell wafting around outside!

I remember hearing this incident reported in the news back in October:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2182525,00.html

A Thai restaurant was frying chillis and the aroma was so strong, throughout the local neigbourhood, that the authorities feared it might be a chemical attack!

If spiced oil is used, as many of us think it probably is, I've long had my doubts that a sufficient volume could be produced as a by-product of making base sauce. It seems more likely that they would prepare quite a large volume of spiced oil directly. If chillis were one of the ingredients, the chilli 'cloud' could easily 'carry' other aromas as it wafts down the street. Just a thought...

Regards
George

[Cory Ander]

....I am in ore of Indian chefs

You must be thinking of "The Iron Chef" then Stew?   ;D

[Dirk]

I'm probably repeating what has already been said but, the smell that comes from my local take-away is almost a barbecued aroma, suggesting that the secret is not an ingredient but the use of flash-frying to sear your final curry. All BIR's will do this but I bet not many of us do. We don't have big cookers or hoods or fire extinguishers.

[SnS]

I'm probably repeating what has already been said but, the smell that comes from my local takeaway is almost a barbecued aroma, suggesting that the secret is not an ingredient but the use of flash-frying to sear your final curry. All BIR's will do this but I bet not many of us do. We don't have big cookers or hoods or fire extinguishers.

Sorry to disagree with you Dirk. I'm not disputing what you're saying about the possible source of the aroma (albeit a bbq one?), but BIR's do not all do this. My regular restaurant doesn't for sure, neither do a few other "open kitchen" takeaways I've used. The aroma is still most certainly there. In fact their burners aren't much different to the largest gas ring I have at home, which most modern hobs now have as standard.

Having said that, if I did want to flash-fry a curry at home, my largest burner ring (3 kW) would be ample, but as you rightly imply, it would make a bit of a mess, and her indoors would certainly object .... and fire extinguishers are expensive ... and if you were right, I'd have a queue outside my front door!

Regards

Sn's  ;D

[Chris303]

Anytime I heat one of my cast iron baltis up till they are smoking hot and I pour my just cooked curry in and everything is sizzling and smoking ---- I get the SMELL and when I taste the curry I just poured in -- i get the TASTE.

There is no secret ingredient... Its is all bout high tempratures, smoking and sizzling.

[Chris303]

I definitely believe there are secrets in BIR cooking.  It could be in the technique or  the ingredients or both.  Either way there has to be some secret to it because if there wasnt, then someone would have recreated it, even on a small scale at home.  The food industry is renowned for keeping secrets, look at Coca Cola for instance.   

That is completely different though. The Coca Cola syrup spicing is known only by 3 I believe people within the full company.

For a secret to be kept by so many thousands of restaurants is a crazy concept. Even crappy local kebab shops who can fire out currys with the BIR taste. And if the magic circle has tough you anything - there is always someone willing to sell out secrets for more money than they would get using the secret.

[Chris303]

The closed thing that comes close to the rich aroma wafting from your local curry house is, I believe, as lot of people here have already suggested, fengreek leaf.  I add ground dried methi leaf to many of my curry dishes, and although it produces results nearly as savory as my local, it is 90% 'there' but not quite!

Could it be that as we, as 'chefs', are exposed to the cooking smells, it's never going to taste quite right?  I cook a mean Sunday morning 'fry-up', but it always tastes better if someone else has done the cooking!!

I agree with you. It's because our smell and taste senses are linked.

I love that curry aroma wafting down the street. However, it soon disappears once you step inside the restaurant and you certainly can't smell it AFTER you've had a curry.

If you're actually cooking curry, you wouldn't notice that gorgeous aroma that we're so familiar with. Only way to check to see if that authentic smell is being produced is to get someone else (a curry head preferably) to walk past your kitchen door when you're cooking ... or even ask the down-wind neighbours, I'm sure they'll soon comment on the smell wafting around outside!

 

Again your absolutely right... when you have been spending hours making base sauces, grinding fresh spices, pre cooking meat, and cooking up a curry your senses are completely dulled to your final dish --- in part because you *know* what you have just put in it etc.

When I serve my curries sizzling in baltis to my friends and family they swear blind that they are eating restaurant quality.

[haldi]

Anytime I heat one of my cast iron baltis up till they are smoking hot and I pour my just cooked curry in and everything is sizzling and smoking ---- I get the SMELL and when I taste the curry I just poured in -- i get the TASTE.
There is no secret ingredient... Its is all bout high tempratures, smoking and sizzling.

I've got to try that
Somebody bought me some balti bowls for a present
Unfortunately they got those awful stainless steel ones
They can't be heated the same
I'll have to get some cast iron baltis
Where did you get yours from?

[Secret Santa]

Anytime I heat one of my cast iron baltis up till they are smoking hot and I pour my just cooked curry in and everything is sizzling and smoking ---- I get the SMELL and when I taste the curry I just poured in -- i get the TASTE.

That may be the case but it doesn't really explain where the "tatse" and "smell" come from as you get that if you have your curry in a takeaway plastic or foil container.