Topic: Another Book

[Razor]

Hi Phil,

Yes, I did query the logic of your suggestion, and continued to query it for some time.  However, I did actually put it to the test and to my suprise, you was absolutely spot on.  I should have come back and acknowledged this on the forum, so my humble apologies for that

What I did find at the time that yes, doubling up on spices did take the dish in the wrong direction but for me, the biggest impact came from the garlic and ginger paste, so much so, that I reckon you could get away with a single measurement of GG paste, even in a 'doubled' up dish!

Ray

[George]

From a quick read-through, this was the only worthwhile info i gleaned from these two books.
p.s. I haven't tried any recipes.

If you haven't tried any of the recipes, how can you possibly know if the information is worthwhile?
Also, those 'nuggets' of information are hardly new, so where have you been, if they're somehow of particular interest to you?

[Peripatetic Phil]

Yes, I did query the logic of your suggestion, and continued to query it for some time.  However, I did actually put it to the test and to my suprise, you was absolutely spot on.  I should have come back and acknowledged this on the forum, so my humble apologies for that

Absolutely no apologies needed, Ray, but good to hear that you can confirm my hypothesis.

What I did find at the time that yes, doubling up on spices did take the dish in the wrong direction but for me, the biggest impact came from the garlic and ginger paste, so much so, that I reckon you could get away with a single measurement of GG paste, even in a 'doubled' up dish!

Because my recent offerings had rather lost the way, I have now gone back to my Kris Dhillon roots, and as you will know, she uses no g/g paste at all.  And now, neither do I, and I can still turn out a mean Chicken Madras !

I have also pre-cooked some remaindered chicken livers in Kashmiri Masala (plus oil, turmeric and a little base) and will be experimenting with these over the weekend.

** Phil.

[DalPuri]

From a quick read-through, this was the only worthwhile info i gleaned from these two books.
p.s. I haven't tried any recipes.

If you haven't tried any of the recipes, how can you possibly know if the information is worthwhile?
Also, those 'nuggets' of information are hardly new, so where have you been, if they're somehow of particular interest to you?

I thought they might've  been of interest to the forum George. If you browse the forum via recent posts, you would've seen this came directly after somebody had asked about cooking in bulk.

Frank. 

[Cory Ander]

Phil, but what if you don't want to double but make tenfold portions ?

Well, Neil and I are suggesting similar forumulae, and extrapolating both gives around four times the spicing for ten times the portion size

That makes absolutely no sense, whatsoever.  Just do a though experiment:

a)  Imagine cooking two "single portions" of curry and combining them.  You now have (without question) two times each of all of the ingredients in your "double portion" (including all the spices, garlic, ginger, etc).

b)  Now imagine cooking a double portion, in the way that you suggest.  You no longer have the same quantity of ingredients in it as in a) above. 

Therefore, they cannot be the same!

To my mind, if you want to cook a double portion (or 10 fold portion, or an "x" time portion) then you must double (or increase by 10 fold, or increase by "x" times) all of the ingredients.

It is totally illogical and unscientific to suggest otherwise.

[Peripatetic Phil]

To my mind, if you want to cook a double portion (or 10 fold portion, or an "x" time portion) then you must double (or increase by 10 fold, or increase by "x" times) all of the ingredients.   It is totally illogical and unscientific to suggest otherwise.

It is neither illogical nor unscientific : rather, it sis simply that we do not yet understand the logic or the science that underlie the facts.  But facts they are, proven by independent experiments by at least three researchers : Neil Faulkner, Ray, and myself.  Whilst I fully accept that neither you nor I (nor Ray) yet understand why one should not increase the spices (g/g, etc) pro rata, the fact remains that increasing them in a lesser ratio leads to better results.  Rather than simply saying "I don't understand this, therefore it cannot be true", why not try the experiment for yourself and then report your findings.  That   would surely be both the logical and the scientific thing to do.

** Phil.

[Cory Ander]

Phil,

It's illogical and unscientific for the very reason I suggested.

If you beg to differ, then some other factors must be coming into play (with your cooking).  Like size of pan, size of heat source, etc.

But, if you really believe that adding a "single portion" amount of garlic and ginger (for example) to a "double portion", gives the same result as two individual portions combined (with, therefore, twice as much garlic and ginger in it as in a single portion), then good luck to you!  But please don't try and convince others of it and try to sell it as an "empirically proved fact"!  :

Rather than simply saying "I don't understand this, therefore it cannot be true", why not try the experiment for yourself and then report your findings.  That   would surely be both the logical and the scientific thing to do

I do it all the time, Phil, and what I personally find is that if you want to make double the portion, then double ALL of the ingredients.  If you want to make x times the portion, then multiply ALL of the ingredients by x.

The only caveat, in my opinion, is that, to get the same result, you must have a heat source and size of pan that are capable of replicating the same cooking conditions.

[chriswg]

Texting Az as I know he often cooks 3 or 4 portions in 1 pan if a table orders multiples of the same dish.

[ELW]

Texting Az as I know he often cooks 3 or 4 portions in 1 pan if a table orders multiples of the same dish.

That would help settle it chriswg & from anyone else with kitchen experience. There must have been 10-20 portions of each dish at a buffet I was at recently & that was at lunchtime

ELW

[Ian S.]

This does make me smile.  Some of us slogged our way through this proportional scaling thing six years ago. We didn't really get anywhere, in terms of a consensus. I'm a bit embarrassed to post the link, as I lost it a bit during the debate, : but here it is anyway:

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1037.0

Worth a read, if only for a laugh. I'd be interested to see what Az says.