Topic: Are we there yet.

[Bobby Bhuna]

Not here again 

That won't happen. It's been tried before time and time again. Distance and time off are just too large factors.

[Bobby Bhuna]

DD I couldn't agree more. None of this 'oh I definitely had a hint of the taste in this one', or 'I definitely caught a brief waft of the smell in this one'. Nahhh, when (if) I get it right it will be there, bang in your face, no disputing it.

Hey SS,

I disagree. There are degrees to everything. If you were trying to replicate a BIR curry using one recipe with a standard base / main from this site and another using a recipe for Scones, I'm pretty sure you'd say that the recipe from this site had the taste / smell of a BIR to a huge degree! It's not a true or false situation but rather an incremental process.

Cheers

BB

[joshallen2k]

That won't happen. It's been tried before time and time again. Distance and time off are just too large factors.

I don't agree. It just takes one (reputable) member to identify a willing BIR, go in with a camera, notepad, and a set of pre-defined forum-agreed goals/questions and get the job done. And enough knowledge to call bullsh*t if we're being led down the wrong path.

It doesn't need to be a group grope. Money buys most things these days.

It would need to be defined "typical" top-drawer BIR. No nouveau-cuisine, or regional oddity.

At the end of the day, the issue may in fact be an insurmountable one - like volume.... but at least we'd know.

One thing got me thinking the other day. JerryM made a comment that our web-enabled collective knowledge may be greater than any individual BIR.

-- Josh

[Secret Santa]

DD I couldn't agree more. None of this 'oh I definitely had a hint of the taste in this one', or 'I definitely caught a brief waft of the smell in this one'. Nahhh, when (if) I get it right it will be there, bang in your face, no disputing it.

Hey SS,

I disagree.

And I disagree with your disagreement!   

1. I used to have curries from BIRs in the 80's with a very special taste and smell.
2. Somewhere in the early nineties that taste and smell gradually disappeared from any of the BIRs I visited.
3. None of the curries I've made from this site have the taste or smell (including CA's made to spec)
4. I know the taste is still around somewhere, and I haven't just lost my sense of smell or taste, because I had a bombay aloo at a BIR over a year ago with a slightly toned down but very definite same taste as the 80's curries. Strangely none of the other curries (it was a buffet) had the taste and none, including the Bombay aloo, had the smell.

So for me it really isn't just a matter of degree as you suggest. In truth, to pick up on your analogy, the curries on this site and current BIR curries may as well be scones for all they achieve towards my idea of the taste and smell.

And, as a summary, for me the BIR curry smell is not the spices hitting the hot oil, it's not the first ladle of base hitting the pan, it's not the smell as you enter a BIR, it's not the smell as you walk past a BIR, it's not the smell of your own kitchen or clothes after a curry making session. It IS (or I should say WAS) the smell of the finished BIR curry. It was strong, and unmistakable. It no longer exists!   

[emin-j]

We probably have the answers on the Forum josh we just need to get them all together in the right order .

Cancel that , just read SS post 

[Secret Santa]

Cancel that , just read SS post 

 ;D

[Cory Ander]

None of the curries I've made from this site have the taste or smell (including CA's made to spec)

Have you actually made my curries totally to spec (i.e. using my spice mix...not BE's or another...and using my spice oil...not oil from the curry base, deep fat fryer, skimmed from a curry, or another)?  If so, perhaps "technique" is more important than I have, so far, given it credit for.

I ask so that I am (we are) perfectly clear about what you've actually tried and not tried (cos therein might lie some answers!)

[Cory Ander]

for me the BIR curry smell is not the spices hitting the hot oil, it's not the first ladle of base hitting the pan, it's not the smell as you enter a BIR, it's not the smell as you walk past a BIR, it's not the smell of your own kitchen or clothes after a curry making session. It IS (or I should say WAS) the smell of the finished BIR curry. It was strong, and unmistakable. It no longer exists!   

But surely the smell of the final curry is created by the former processes (e.g. frying the spices and adding the curry base) SS?  And I imagine the smell (and taste, for that matter) that is developed is not quantised but is on a continuum.....unless something (ingredient and/or technique) is drastically amiss! 

[JerryM]

Secret Santa,

much appreciate u explaining further.

yesterday ~ mid afternoon  my wife took me to a supermarket (as she does most friday's). nothing special about that.

walking thought the carpark my nose immediately starting twitching. BIR.

as we got round the corner there were revellers coming out. the restaurant had never been open at the same time as i'd been in the carpark. on the way back i spotted the extract which faces into the car park. that smell is BIR for me.

i've know the Dilshad since ~79 ish and have eaten their regular ever since. i will ask next time i'm in. i can't for the life of me think of what could have changed. their curries have evolved over the period but not that much. i also know the owner of a place in warrington since the early 80's (but have not been in for quite a while). he would tell me for sure and i keep saying we should revisit.

ps Jenson Interceptor would be my jag.

[Secret Santa]

But surely the smell of the final curry is created by the former processes (e.g. frying the spices and adding the curry base) SS?

A truism if ever there was one!

My point is that whatever these processes are that create the taste and smell that I am after I am unable to recreate them, as evidenced by my failure to date, despite decades of trying, to make even one curry that comes even close!

My secondary point being that as I have tried many of the recipes on this site and none of those produced the taste or smell either, that for me at least, the taste and smell are a lost treasure.