Topic: The BIR secret...apparently

[Razor]

Hi Chris,

All of those spices frying away will have a negative effect (temporarily) on your sense of smell which in turn messes up your sense of taste.

I have always suspected this for a long time, and suggested it on another thread.  A curry, without doubt, does taste better the next day but, the texture also changes and the meat can get tougher.

I don't think any of us have partners with suitable skills to cook a curry for us

That is oh so true. My other half could burn ice cream

We could trust our judgement

Chris, I absolutely do trust my own judgement and I put up a thread a while back entitled "Are we being too harsh on ourselves" whereby I raised the subject of our cooking skills and how our dishes REALLY compare with the BIR's and TA's.  I believed then, and still do, that I could knock up most curries and have someone blind taste both mine and a restaurant curry, and come out of it in pretty good shape.

Georges 'come dine with me' idea, would be great to prove that point out.  The only trouble with it as I see it, is this, the person hosting the evening, will no doubt be totally unhappy with their cooking on the night but, the guest's will be thinking "shit, I've got to go some to better this"

Ray

[CurryOnRegardless]

IIRC it was Bruce Edwards in his posts on here that first mentioned 'olfactory overload' and the effect on the way we perceive our success or otherwise, suggesting it is always better to make the curry ahead of time.

Taking his advice, I always make my curries early evening and then retire to a suitable hostelry to prepare for the forthcoming repast in the time honoured fashion, i.e. a swift half (a gallon!), works a treat.

Cheers
CoR

[joshallen2k]

Razor - I've done a little experiment to test this. Before starting to cook the curry, I put a clothespin on my nose to prevent inhaling the cooking fumes, and removed only right before serving.

It was tough to say if the curry was "better", but I can tell you I felt I enjoyed the curry more than usual. I used my usual Madras recipe and technique for consistency.

[joshallen2k]

I'd also like to chime in on the garlic/ginger paste comment made by the chef.

I always use fresh g/g, and simply grate a little of each into a small lump using a fine cheese grater before starting the curry.

However, it was the Ashoka that got me first thinking there may be more to it (precooked), and I noticed that Dipuraja goes out of his way to describe his g/g paste (blended).

I made the Ashoka paste once, and have never blended the garlic / ginger otherwise. Even in  my spice grinder you need quite a mass of g/g to get it to suitably blend.

Maybe there is something to blending/pre-cooking the paste...

Josh

ps - and yes Chris, get in there mate! Sod the diet.

[canicant]

I'm sorry but the theory of tasting better next day doesn't quite work the same way for me, and this is why, for many years before cooking my own BIR my family would always order too much, because we all thought the BOUGHT curry left overs tasted better the day after.
So yes, curry does without doubt taste better the following day but that also goes for curries I didn't cook 

Rob.

[Malc.]

Thinking on this further, I am sure the chef is on the money about senses. Smell and taste work hand in hand. Try eating your favourite dish with said clothes peg on your nose, you'll notice a big difference.

If you have spent time over the pan cooking your spices, the aroma is going to almost pre-load your sense of smell. So when the dish hits the meal table and you sit down to enjoy it, you don't notice it's aroma so much. This being the case, it will be a little like the clothes peg sitting on your nose and the resulting experience will lesser to a degree.  Rather like aftershave, you put it on and can smell it but fairly soon you don't notice it at all, yet people may comment on it.

[chriswg]

I've been giving it plenty of thought too and I'm tending to agree. I bet even a 30 min break in the garden would help reset the smell sensors. The problem with that is the rest of the bits, bhajis, naans etc are best eaten fresh. Tough one, but it does explain a lot.

[Unclefrank]

My other half only has CTM, so when i cook my fav curry the recipe is always (mostly) for 4 people,  so i put the rest of the "sauce" in the fridge for up to 4 days by only using amount for 1 person , must say they do taste different in the sense of spices and texture, towards the 4th day the sauce has a more dark looking sauce but the taste is still great, which means i can have a curry 4 days in a row just by adding the meat and veg if recipe demands it (mushrooms etc...)
I do this every time i have a curry and  the taste does "change", a little more spicier, a little more thickness to the texture but having said that i have had jalfrezi and the spice has not been quite so spicy reason for this i do not know.

[JerryM]

chriswg,

it'll be interesting if u do get the opportunity to follow up on the g/g paste.

as i said in the HC post i'm searching for a taste in the BIR TA that i don't think i get at home - i had thought it might have been swapping the garlic/ginger proportions round - but i'm no longer convinced. i need a TA to get my thoughts clearer.

i only tried the swapped proportion in the dipuraja method and probably need to try with the hot method - the ginger produced a hotness that i did not want.

after that i'm back to some adjustment to the tom puree but i don't have any real clear ideas. the roasted garlic did not deliver any discernable difference.

[ranat22]

i,m pleased i stumbled across this thread,cos i always found it strange that my currys tasted better not just the next day but just by letting it cool right down then re-heating it...the indian taste is a lot better and more like a resturant or take away