Topic: I got the secret!

[Mark J]

I agree snowdog, takeaways are best eaten immediately, I find the same isnt true with home curries (I guess the takeaways have already been sitting around for a while, well the base sauce has anyway)

[Panpot]

Hi Mark J,

Thanks for putting my mind at rest re the missing posting, it was really frustrating since I had got up real early and had typed away in my madness.

I have really enjoyed what the site has done for me not only the results on the plate but also that you guys are talking me seriously by getting back to me so thanks. Thanks particularly to Buzz for the excellent Butter Sauce with Tandoori Chicken and for Merrymaker for reuniting me with the Rick Stein recipe.

What happened Saturday was that I woke up real early thinking about the site, I must have lost the plot but Buzz's recipe for the Butter Chicken was superb and my wife was delighted with the improvement. I have been eating and cooking curries for over 30 years and good a it too or at least good at using the various recipies from some of the cook books that have come out of famous Glasgow curry houses but Friday nights meal was a leap forward.

I just had to get up and read the Bruce Edwards stuff I had printed off Friday night and got really excited about the opportunity it provided to take my cooking even further. But having read it my mind turned to ''The  Quest'' and I began to think I had solved it.

I know before I explain this that it may be overly simple but it might just be what you guys have been trying to solve all this time. Please don't dismiss it out of hand but give it some genuine thought even set up a liitle test with friends or family to check it out.

So here goes, having read Bruce Edwards it seemed that he had written that without a sense of something being missing certainly not a secret ingredient or process or even burning with flame
He had been shown what do do and from this site it seems it is really good stuff so what if.

Have you ever noticed how you can never smell the curry breath on a fellow diner or the scent of garlic from a someone else if you have eaten it too. So what if the fact that we have been informed that we will never be able to recreate the smell and taste at home is not to do with a secret but rather that as we cook our nostrils and tastebuds adjust to the spices and aromas as we cook and so by the time we eat it we are short on the impact as a result.

I was fascinated when I went back to the site later in the day on Saturday that the debate on cooking the day before or in the morning for evening consumption had started, almost proving my theory. What if apart from my idea here the very fact that a curry house kitchen only cooks constantly Indian spices just simply builds up layer and layer of the smell on the walls ceiling etc and that it just cant help smelling the way it does.

If I am right then we will never be able to do it at home unless we cook with gas masks on and then shower and change or even go out for a walk in the fresh air to then return for the maximum effect.

I hope I am wrong because if we can crack it then life will be just perfect.

I wonder

Panpot

[snowdog]

Try one of the recipes - start with the Bruce Edwards one. Then use it to make a curry, not forgetting to use fried onions and plenty of garlic/ginger puree when making the curry.

Then report back what the house smells like - especially after you go out and then come back in again.

You'll see what I mean

[Panpot]

Hi Snowdog,

Thanks for that I am off back to Glasgow tomorrow and back here by the end of the week so I intend to pick up all I need for the Bruce Edwards magazine articles and will do what you say on Sunday.

[Mark J]

Hi panpot, I think you're bang on here and its a topic we've debated hotly over the years!

There does seem to be a desensitisation going on when you cook a spicy meal that you dont get with other forms of cooking IMHO

[Panpot]

Hi Mark J,

 I was hoping I was wrong with my liitle theory and I suspected you guys must have visited it a few times down the years.

If thats all there is to it then so be it so maybe we need to find the ideal method of keeping the scent out of our noses and mouths while cooking. I can see us all with those SARS type masks they wear in the far east when the flu scare is at its height, you never know though it might work.

Whatever is the cause you lot have been and will continue to be an inspiration to all those in the past and future who have found the site and the magic contained within.

Looking forward to Sunday lunch allready and maybe a wee curry in Glasgow before I get back here Saturday night.

Cheers

Panpot
 was

[pH]

There seems to be a common theme in many threads here -

"My friends/partner/lover/guests liked/loved it but I wasn't that impressed"

Explanations -

As above - by being involved in the cooking somehow our sense of smell (directly linked to our sense of taste) is somehow different. 

There have been a number of experiments that show that taste is dramatically influenced by our expectation - exactly the same pre-prepared meal 'tastes' different depending on where it is served.

Also lots of food tastes different just because you don't cook it yourself.  As an extreme example toast I make for myself never is as good as toast made for me!

So could it all be in our mind - has anyone tried serving a home-made BIR-style curry alongside a takeaway and have the 2 compared by guests who don't know which is which?

Another explanation may be that the people posting here are by definition the curry-geeks and our expectations are much higher than our partners who just happen to like a curry but certainly wouldn't spend an entire saturday trying to make one!

[extrahotchillie]

Good point CH I have never bought a takeaway and compared it along side one of my own, but a very good point indeed.

I get the feeling mine will taste better (I hope) a good experiment to try on mt friends, now there's a thought.

[Mark J]

Bang on PH, if we cook it it will never live up to our expectations