It is a logical approach to things, where else would you start?
It's not a logical approach to things at all, it's learning by 'mimicry' and not by 'understanding'.
Rubbish, learning by mimicry is how we start to learn, the understanding comes later, after many attempts and one or two failures. I agree that just copying an approach is going to give varied results at the start, but you learn to get consistency by practice but you have to begin somewhere.
You see a BIR Chef put a 1/4 chef spoon of white powder into his base gravy - what are you going to put into yours by copying him? How do you know what flavour or effect he's trying to achieve if you don't know what it is? It could be a ground spice like garlic or fenugreek powder which will alter the flavour of the dish. It could be a seasoning such as salt, it could be a flavour enhancer such as MSG, it could even be a thickening agent such as cornflour or even plain white flour. How do you know?
How does copying him without the understanding of what he's putting in his dish help you to replicate the same effect or flavour he's getting or trying to achieve? Or are you so good, that you know by instinct and experience what it is?
But who in the right mind would do that? When Julian from curry2go put in the white powder, many members queried as to what it was, I don't think anyone just went ahead and added what they assumed the white powder was. It could have been Cilit Bang for all we know? Knowing what an ingredient is, however, is a completely different thing to understanding what the ingredient should taste like or what we would expect the ingredient to taste like, and is why members asked Julian what it was before there proceeded to 'replicate' (copy) is base gravy.
First of all, I said 'it seems to be'. That's not a definitive statement either way, but it is the over-riding impression I get based on reading through many of the threads here. Clearly there's people here who cook by understanding, knowledge and experience but the majority merely seem to copy them, without really understanding what it is that they're doing.
Sorry Spicey but that is your opinion, of which your are entitled to but I think that it is rather insulting to even suggest such a thing. There are many members on here who like to share their experimental projects, such as Curryhell, Chriswg and JerryM, and I have done the same but there are also many members that prefer to keep their own council and quietly do things their way. Why they keep it to themselves is anybody's guess but it's their choice.
One of the reasons I hold that view is because of the sheer number of people here who think it's perfectly acceptable practice to take a base gravy from one person and combine it with a 'spice mix' from someone else. Why? What logic is there in introducing so many uncontrollable variables? Does it not occur to people that base gravy's are designed to work with the spice mix's that go with them
What a bizarre statement to make, especially coming from someone that regards the 'monkey see monkey do approach' as sheer mimicry. So, if I recommend to a member to use my spicemix, with Chewy's base then I must be showing a lack of understanding or logic? To me, it shows how integrable some combinations can be. Chewy's base is a much superior base to mine, whereas I think that my own spice mix works better with it than Chewys. I think/know this because I've put it to the test however, I've never openly mentioned this on the forum as it doesn't really need to be aired, members can make up their own minds/opinions through experimenting, just as I did/do.
I boil my onions whole in a base, Why? because I saw Chewytikka do it, monkey sees, monkey does? no, not at all.
You do it, because you know with 100% certainty, logically and by deductive reasoning that most if not all BIR Curry base gravy's use boiled onions, garlic and ginger as their predominant ingredients. You don't have to see someone else using these ingredients to know why to use them. After all, you wouldn't try and make a base gravy out of water, flour, yeast, sugar and salt any more than you'd try to make a loaf of bread out of boiled onions, garlic and ginger.
No Spicey, you've completely missed the point. I boil my onions whole in a base rather than chop them up. Why?, because (and there is science to back this up, although I didn't know the science at the time) it brings out the natural sweetness of the onions that I am familiar with in BIR food. There are many members on cr0 that have done the same since Chewy published his 3 hr base and the majority agree, the base is much sweeter than a base done with chopped onions. Now that isn't me, imposing my beliefs or theories on others, their conclusions were based on their own (silent) experiments. Now forum member Cory Ander, who I admire and respect immensely, doesn't subscribe to this theory which is fine but he has never insulted or looked down upon them that do, and is why I find some of your responses in certain threads, so damn right rude and offensive..!
Don't get me wrong, I respect the fact that you want to get to the truth, as you see it, and that you may find members accounts of things contradictory or illogical in your opinion, but the way that you simply dismiss members methods, ideas, theories, without offering any of you own as comparisons, is insulting to say the least..! Perfect example below;
Curryhell's recent 'supposed' comparison of ifindforu's spice mix (designed to work with his own base gravy) and Ashoka's Spice Mix (designed to work with Ashoka's base gravy) is a good example of this which produced fairly inconclusive results. Yeah I wonder why? What logic (or usefulness) is there in using one base gravy to test two different spice mix's when the predominant flavour of the dish is produced by the base gravy and the spice mix is used to fine tune the final dish?
Curryhell, by his own addmission has a bit more experimenting to do with this and has never proffessed the results to be comprehensive in any way. What he did do, was to get close friends around to help him out with the experiment, none of which, I assume, actually make their own curries but do know what they like and don't like. Judging by the comments of his testers, he produced two very nice curries, equalling if not bettering them of his local TA! To me, this is just step 1, on his testing of these combinations and I for one, can't wait to read his next set of results. However, you seem to think that the results were, "hopeless - like so many results here"
I joined in the hope I'd finally be able to solve a 20 odd year mystery 'smoky/sweet' flavour that's always been missing from my curry's. I've got closer to achieving that, but I'm still not there yet. The forum is useful, but it's a shame it's so cliquey and there's as much misinformation and fluff as there is useful information.
The misinformation that you refer to, is a product of 6 or 7 years, work in progress. Many of the ideas and theories from say 2005/6/7 have been superseeded by more reliable information, clearer accounts from actual BIR's/TA's and members practicing and striving to achieve their personal goal. You may not always see the logic in these accounts but that doesn't mean that the results aren't good, albeit it that they may not be what you're looking for. As for the forum being cliquey, maybe you feel that way because your combative approach brings a similar reaction from most of the active members?
Ray
Topic: Chef's Spoon (Read 57692 times)
