Looking back on my last two posts, you are right, that language was not justified, and for that I'm sorry.
What absolutely galled me however, was that you ASSUMED I didn't know what I was doing without even taking the trouble to ask!!
I could expand at length on what happened, and you could glean something of what I did by reading the thread I started some time ago: 'bitterness in base sauces', if it is still extant.
In a nutshell however, in trials where all other variables were kept constant, I found that bitterness had NOTHING to do with:-
A) Not enough salt in the base making process.
B) Inconsistancy in quality of ingredients (repeatable results with different batches of veg)
C) Ginger used with skin; without skin, & without skin and without a 5mm layer of flesh immediatley under the skin.
I ultimately found that an excess of ginger gives a flavour that many would discribe as bitter, but is probably an artifact caused by the preponderance of ginger interacting with the other flavours present (certainly 'bitter' to me). these flavours were never evident in the final dishes cooked with these bases, either corrected (proabably by the excess ginger elements being 'fried-off'), or perhaps disguised by the overall flavour of the finished dish. However it was markely detrimental to the flavour of the base itself.
Perhaps becasue I am so self-critical of my efforts, I try to produce a base that stands the test of being served on its own a a spicy soup! If it does that, it's good.
Reducing ginger in a 'boiled' base; or reducing its impact by frying it first completely cured the problem.
I could go on for several more paragraphs about EXACTLY what I tried, but you are likely I think, to still remain with the impression that you know best!
Topic: A lesson in my local take-away (Read 54329 times)
