Topic: Anyone tried Julian's base yet?

[George]

Would the lack of oxygen prevent anything major happening, knowing my luck Id probably be on the news tonight for blowing the building up. Can and should this be done??

I suggest there are at least two arguments against trying:

1. It goes against warnings on most pressure cookers, not to use them with such a low ratio of water to oil.
2. There are dire warnings of the danger on the Internet.

Just because one or two people try it a few times and nothing untoward happens, doesn't make it safe.

I'm saying the above as someone who used 100% oil to try cooking KFC type chicken in a domestic pressure cooker. But I took many precautions, and still consider it high risk.

[Whandsy]

I personally am quite happy to continue using this technique, the pressure cooker takes a little time to get up to temperature and the vegetables are continually releasing water during the cooking process to such an extent that the resulting quantity of liquid has to be seen to be believed.

That said, each to his own

W

[976bar]

I have made this base and I found it very similar to the SNS base which I first made when I joined this forum. To be honest, I wasn't overley impressed and I still prefer Taz's base.

However, I do like the idea of sweating down the onions in Julian's method, so the next time I make Taz's base, I am going to sweat the onions down in the oil and a little water for about one and half to two hours before adding the other ingredients and finishing off with the Taz method just to see what/if any changes it makes

[Peripatetic Phil]

I suggest there are at least two arguments against trying:

1. It goes against warnings on most pressure cookers, not to use them with such a low ratio of water to oil.
2. There are dire warnings of the danger on the Internet.

Just because one or two people try it a few times and nothing untoward happens, doesn't make it safe.

I'm saying the above as someone who used 100% oil to try cooking KFC type chicken in a domestic pressure cooker. But I took many precautions, and still consider it high risk.

Just to add to George's wise words of caution, I would like to report a highly dangerous occurrence in my own kitchen.  I too made a high oil content base in a pressure cooker, and once the pressure had dropped to the point where the safety interlocks indicated that it was safe to open and remove the lid, I did so.  All looked perfectly fine and tranquil in the pressure cooker.  Then, totally failing to anticipate what was about to happen, I took my trusty wooden spoon and gave the base a stir.  And I have never been so terrified in my life.  The liquid, which was clearly at considerably over 100C, rose up in the cooker like a maelstrom.  If it had been any higher, it would have gone over the top and my feet would almost certainly have been cremated.  As it was, it just stopped short of the top, and I backed off like a scalded cat.  When the turbulence had subsided, I gently and cautiously re-introduced the spoon, and the witch's cauldron effect re-occurred, at a slightly lower scale.  Time and again, a gentle stir was all that was needed to cause all hell to break loose in the pressure cooker.  And the explanation ?  Well, oil is lighter than water, and boils at a far higher temperature.  When the pressure has dropped in the pressure cooker, the water (below) is just below boiling point (whence the fact that no more steam is given off, and the pressure has dropped to a "safe" level that releases the interlocks).  But the oil (above), which also has higher thermal inertia than water, is almost certainly well above 100C.  But it doesn't give off steam, so the safety mechanisms are fooled into believing that all is well.  But just the gentlest of stirs brings the near-boiling water (below) into intimate contact with the super-heated oil (above) and the results are terrifying : a boiling, turbulent mixture of oil, water and steam that occupies far more space than the individual components and rushes up inside the vessel and which could so easily overflow, if the original volume were more than about 1/3 of the capacity of the pressure cooker.

So, please bear this in mind : if you want to experiment with cooking high-oil-content bases in a pressure cooker, the choice is yours, but please please please take the greatest care once you have removed the lid, and do not stir until you are /certain/ that the liquid has cooled to a point where scalding (or worse) is no longer a possibility.

** Phil.

[PaulP]

Good warning post Phil, glad to hear you didn't get hurt. I noticed you haven't been posting here for a while.

Cheers,

Paul

[joshallen2k]

Scary Stuff Phil!

Has anyone made this base using the specified pressure cooker recipe?

I have bought one, but am waiting to finish my current stock of base.

-- Josh

[mickdabass]

I have bought one, but am waiting to finish my current stock of base.
-- Josh

This pressure cooker stuff seems to me to be another red herring. It cant be normal BIR practice otherwise it would be well documented. I think you are all very brave to try this technique but also think you are all wasting your time & money. Good Luck peeps

[Whandsy]

I have bought one, but am waiting to finish my current stock of base.
-- Josh

This pressure cooker stuff seems to me to be another red herring. It cant be normal BIR practice otherwise it would be well documented. I think you are all very brave to try this technique but also think you are all wasting your time & money. Good Luck peeps

Depends what your trying to get out of it Mickdabass, the reason I'm using one is the gravy now takes about an hour and a half start to finish, whereas it used to take me about 3 and a half hours for the same result
As I've mentioned previously, long working hours, children, busy lifestyle etc, for me time is of the essence
W

[Aussie Mick]

Same here Whandsy, and I am convinced that the pressure cooker bases that I have made are superior to the non-pressure cooker bases I have made. A lesser cooking time obviously keeps in a lot of the taste and goodness of the raw ingredients....IMHO.

I'm no expert, but I've cooked at least a dozen bases these past few months ( and have been cooking curries at home for 30 years.) I'm a recent convert to the pressure cooker, and I'll be using it every time in future.

I think the reason the restaurants don't use one is the fact that you cannot buy one big enough to cook up what a restaurant would need each day. They would need to do several batches.

[mickdabass]

Heh Whandsy & Mick

I take your point. I have not tried using one...and as you say it depends what you are trying to get out of all this.
My goal is to try and replicate a BIR curry like the ones I used to enjoy in the late 70s & 80s. Its a bit of a strange goal though because I know I can make far tastier curries than I currently do by using fresh garlic etc, but thats not my aim