Topic: salt how much to add

[emin-j]

I think it's all down to personal taste , just add Salt at the final cooking stage until it tastes ' right ' , I reckon it must be at least 1/2 a teaspoon per portion to bring out the flavour , try eating fish n chips or salad without Salt 

[PaulP]

Could it possibly be because no Asian people would ever eat "that shite food" to quote a taxi driver of my acquaintance?
 

Regards
CoR

I work with quite a few Indian IT contractors and we have been out to BIR restaurants several times. They certainly seem to enjoy the food as much as we do.

Paul

[JerryM]

i think the taxi driver must be in a minority. the chef at my local TA is incredible proud of what he cook's. i'm not being hoodwinked - u can see it in his eye when u talk to him.

i know they cook their own tea in the shop before service. i'm sure its different to what's on the menu. the point being they use the same ingredients.

my interest is how can they be so sure their QA (ie cook and make by sight - no scales anywhere) is so good when there is very little QC. unless of course this accounts for why some TA are very poor.

[CurryOnRegardless]

i know they cook their own tea in the shop before service. i'm sure its different to what's on the menu. the point being they use the same ingredients.

That is the whole point, yes of course they use the same ingredients but the resulting dishes are nothing like the stuff we know as BIR cuisine.

My taxi driver chap, it's his firm btw, provide delivery cover for a lot of the T/As and BIRs round here and many of his drivers also work in the restaurant trade so he does know what he is talking about. I'm sure that most BIR cooks take pride in their work, their livelihood depends on it after all, however if you ask anyone in the trade if they actually eat the stuff they serve I'll be willing to bet that very few do.The taxi guy calls it "shite" because of all the oil and salt in it, he reckons it's just not good for you, whenever I've asked how much they use he just says "too bloody much."

It's interesting to note that the BIRs seem to be changing/evolving into out of town destination style establishments (town centers T/As all seem to be kebab shops now) as more and more Asian people are eating out and demanding a more traditional and possibly more sophisticated style of cooking.

Another reason the 'old skool' BIR taste is disappearing, maybe?

Regards
CoR.

[JerryM]

CoR,

for sure u can't discount what taxi drivers say - they usually have cast iron experience on what they are talking about.

the quality of BIR is not in question for me though. yes there is a vast range between the best and the worst and unfortunately most fall into the worst category. just as an example a friend conducted a study in warrington recently. he picked 10 BIR's out phone book and progressively had the same meal from each in turn. the good news for me was that without knowledge of my eating habits the same TA was independently assessed as the best.

what are disappearing are the imitations - the best are doing more trade than they've ever done.

what i was searching for was an answer to why the chefs don't taste. imagine telling Gordon u've not tasted the dish as u don't like it. it's of course not about if they hate it or love it - how do they ensure the QA with very little QC. i think on this one the taxi man will struggle.

what i personally believe is that during cooking the relatively high level of salt makes the dish almost inedible. as the dish stands the taste changes to what we all know. i'm after a selection of views on what other possibilities exist or anything that will get me closer to my BIR objective.

[Secret Santa]

what i was searching for was an answer to why the chefs don't taste...how do they ensure the QA with very little QC.

Jerry imagine that you are a BIR chef, you work what five or six days a week? Then imagine how many times they make each dish in a week say. After that much hands on experience of making the same dish day after day, to the same formula, would you need to taste?

[PaulP]

To add to what SS said, could they even taste anything objectively after being exposed to an overdose of curry smells as they cook.

Paul

[JerryM]

Secret Santa, PaulP

i was searching for any better understanding of the workings of a BIR chef - thinking that there may be learning for us and improvement in what we do already.

i have some experience of the effect of variation of salt on the dish. i feel i certainly don't know enough about salt in BIR though. if the "no taste chef" was down to salt then it would  have given me a good steer in what direction to proceed. base:frying salt proportion for me is currently ~4:1 but the ashoka is 8:1 - am i too low - that's the question which obviously i can eventually answer through trial and error myself.

given your comments and no other suggestions i can only conclude with what u say ie repetition is the reason for chef no tasting

[JerryM]

base:frying salt proportion for me is currently ~4:1 but the ashoka is 8:1

now realise (have just made base) that the above is ERROR.

should have said base salt : frying salt range 0.6:1 to 1.6:1 c/w ashoka at 2.4:1 (30ml in 10 off 300ml base portions, Nb original is actually x2 this ie 60g). all based on using 1/4 tsp at frying.

i've adjusted the base i've just made to increase the base salt to 17g in 7 portions (800g onion) and will use 1/4 tsp at frying giving total per dish of 3/4 tsp and ratio of 2:1 (c/w with using total of ~1/2 tsp in the past).

Nb i'm basing 15ml of salt being 15g which i think it roughly equates

[JerryM]

i cooked with the modified base last night (4 off jalfrezi and 1 off butter chicken).

i was well pleased with the result - i think the last piece of the jigsaw has fitted into place.

i am adopting total of 3/4 tsp salt per 200ml  finished dish going fwd (300ml uncooked base)(1/2 tsp in the base and 1/4 tsp added at frying).

i am sure i'll try tweaking it over time to see if i can bring the total salt down but this increase from 1/2 tsp total has made a difference for me. by adding the bigger portion to the base avoids the over salting taste in the dish if u try increasing the salt at frying stage.

two-sheds - many thanks for initiating the post as it made me realise that i'd not fully bottomed this topic.