Topic: Ifindforu's spice mix vs Abdul's spice mix

[curryhell]

Ok, result time.
The feedback was by no means conclusive but enlightening nevertheless and the buggers went through the research material like a bloody plague of locusts

Opinion one from a wannabe chef but not BIR orientated (and an unexpected taste tester) was that the ifindforu's verion had it by a nose.  It had a slight sweetness about it and tasted a little hotter than Abdul's.  The heat was the right level for him (lightweight ) and he then proceded to describe my curries as "lush". 

Second up serious madras curry eater (oh christ no ).  Both look the dogs bollocks  he said (phew).  There was a serious amount of savouring of both offerings and then a double take .  Abdul drew level with a comment of a stronger flavour and a longer after taste compared to the competition which had a sweeter note.

Next up another serious curry lover (but nothing too hot and he had concerns knowing my preferred heat levels ).  Look of total shock on his face at the first mouthful  .  He could actually eat it and taste it and there was no need at all for a fire extinguisher .  Really tasty curries that look no different from the local TA.  Abdul's nudges ahead with a comment of a slightly deeper more robust tasting dish but not a lot in it.  Ifindforu's was slightly hotter in taste

Third curry lover wades in, has a good feed on both and declares they are both lovely and as good as his local TA and very little difference between the two in flavour .  Not much help

Surprise tester, a frenchman chips in, enjoys both offerings, very tasty  and loads of good flavour which lingers.  A nice heat remaining afterwards.  Then he declares that he only has maybe two or three takeaways during the year.  Too health conscious for my liking.

Being the chef i have the casting vote and i did my test before the human dysons arrived  .
When I first got home and opened the Jalpur and smelt it I was a bit taken aback and very sceptical about it delivering a good result unless used very carefully.  It is probably the most pungent commercial garam masala I have come across.  It

[Stephen Lindsay]

Great post CH and perhaps one which emphasises the subjectivity of individual tastes even when you have been fairly empirical in your approach. I'd have been more worried if there was a consensus that one outshone the other by miles!

[solarsplace]

Hi CH

As SL says - great post! interesting, amusing and well written.

It is interesting to hear, that although, relatively quite different spices / mixes were used, the differences in the end still remains quite subtle.

Glad I'm not one of your guinea pigs though!

... I shall be probing them a lot deeper. ...

[emin-j]

Well done CH, it seems there being so little to choose between the curry's that using many of the regular spice mix's could produce similar flavoured curry's,my current duo is curry2go's base with ifindforu's spice mix but without the Jalpur GM and ES curry powder (i use Rajah) and am very pleased with the resulting curry's,
As there was no 'Eureka' moment at the tasting confirms to me there is no real need for the JP or ES spices which aren't available in my area anyway,very well done for taking the time to complete the test 

[curryhell]

Great post CH and perhaps one which emphasises the subjectivity of individual tastes even when you have been fairly empirical in your approach. I'd have been more worried if there was a consensus that one outshone the other by miles!

Stephen, I don't think there can be many more topics than this that are so subjective.  The best we can hope for is a general concensus of opion and i think that is being a bit hopeful .  If one dish had have outshone the other, obviously i would then need to have  investigated further.  But that isn't to say the opposite results entirely could not have been gleened from a different panel of judges .  At the end of the day it's all good fun and i've learnt a couple of things from it.  I look forward to the next test

[curryhell]

Hi CH

As SL says - great post! interesting, amusing and well written.

It is interesting to hear, that although, relatively quite different spices / mixes were used, the differences in the end still remains quite subtle.

Glad I'm not one of your guinea pigs though!

... I shall be probing them a lot deeper. ...

Hi Sp.  What you saying???  You wouldn't like my food ;D. Glad you enjoyed reading it. When you look at the composition of both spice mixes you can see that the make up of both is very similar % wise.  That's why i chose Abdul's and because i rate i highly.  The whole purpose of this first experiment was to see what kind of impact Jalpur had vs another garam masala.  In retrospect what i should have done was to make up identical mixes of the same powder with the exception of the brand of gm used.  Lesson learnt.  Looking forward to doing part two now ;D

[curryhell]

Well done CH, it seems there being so little to choose between the curry's that using many of the regular spice mix's could produce similar flavoured curry's,my current duo is curry2go's base with ifindforu's spice mix but without the Jalpur GM and ES curry powder (i use Rajah) and am very pleased with the resulting curry's,
As there was no 'Eureka' moment at the tasting confirms to me there is no real need for the JP or ES spices which aren't available in my area anyway,very well done for taking the time to complete the test 

Glad to hear you're getting good results emin-j.  I now have some ES so i can make Ifindforu's mix exactly to spec and pitch one powder against another.  The first experiment was really about seeing if Jalpur really made a  difference.  It did albeit only marginal with personal preferences then coming into play as to which curry was better.  I have some further experiments i wish to carry out.  For me this is all about determining which mix powder i use going forward, albeit a combination of a couple or the tweaking of one.  Then i can move on to deciding on which base provides "better" results before i start to modify that trying to get closer to the taste with which i am familiar.  Thanks for taking the trouble to read the thread and comment.