Yes, that's really mature and will clearly make a point  :

Quote from: Cory Ander

You're being a trifle rude and ignorant now guys

. 

Quote from: SSPot calling the kettle black! Absolute classic

That's your problem, SS, and it always has been.  All too ready to cause a stink but never able to provide anything of substance to the forum. 

Prove me wrong; why do you think that the oil "separates" and what does it infer?

You guys are being far more rude and immature than those that you dare to criticise (in my opinion) with the somewhat annoying and pathetic attempt at presuming such innocence.  At least the "discussion" or "argument" (on other threads) is about cooking curries (which is far more than can be said for this sort of diatribe and cheap point scoring).

If people weren't interested in such stuff, those threads wouldn't be so popular (and they clearly are)!  Perhaps it's a little like "rubber necking" at the scene of a car accident  :

You're being a trifle rude and ignorant now guys. 

It's an interesting "discussion".  Why not take it to another thread and discuss it properly?

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,11572.msg89640.html#msg89640

I personally would like to better understand the science behind this (i.e. the what is happening and why?).

Why does the oil "separate" from the oil/water/spice mix in a curry when you fry it?  What does it mean or infer?

Why does the oil "separate" from the oil/water/spice/onion/tomato/etc mix when you make a curry base?  What does it mean and what does it infer?

It seems to me that Spicey has made a good attempt at explaining it:

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,11568.msg89624.html#msg89624

It also seems to me that nobody else has offered an alternative or better or plausible explanation (yet).

I reckon the question is an interesting one.  I, for one, would be interested in hearing others' views and understanding it further.  I don't think anyone has expressed an "absurd claim" or an "idiotic attitude" (so far).

But it's undoubtedly more appropriate to start a new thread than to continue to derail this one.  Anyone?

Quote from: spiceyokooko on February 11, 2013, 11:56 PM
The principle is exactly the same with the big stock pot of base sauce as it is with the frying pan, only this time the emulsion (water + oil) is only created on the surface. The water evaporates from the surface, the emulsion breaks and bingo the oil separates.

Now that sounds plausible..... 

Quote from: Secret Santa on February 11, 2013, 11:41 PM
So you still assert that the oil separates from the curry when all the water has been removed but can't explain why in the base, where the water exceeds the oil content by roughly an order of magnitude, that the oil still separates from the water.

You make a good point, SS. 

Perhaps it's because the particulates in the particulate/water/oil mix initially absorb the oil, which then "separates" from the mix, with the application of heat, by some sort of transport mechanism, due to the immiscibility of oil in water?

Why do you think it's the case (which, as you say, seems to be the case)?

Quote from: spiceyokooko on February 11, 2013, 11:05 PM
a perfectly rational and logical explanation of the scientific (water evaporation and emulsion breaking) reasons for why oil separates.

I agree, it seems perfectly rationale and reasonable to me...and I think SS well knows it.

There appear to be some dubious calculations going on here.

It is clearly more relevant to compare the oil content of the curry base with the volume of curry base (rather than with the mass of onions).

The following then holds:

• BB1's original base (i.e. 2 litres of oil & 7kg of onions) - about 54ml of oil per 300ml of curry base
• BB1's revised base (i.e. 1 litre of oil & 5kg of onions) - about 38ml of oil per 300ml of curry base
• MYN's (yet again) revised base (i.e. 800ml of oil & 5kg of onions) - about 30ml of oil per 300ml of curry base
• CA's curry base (i.e. 125ml of oil & 600g onions) - about 16ml of oil per 300ml of curry base

So, it is clear that there is considerably more oil (at least about twice as much, and up to about 3.5 times as much, oil per volume of curry base) in all of the BB1 variants compared to mine.

Compensating for this is that BB1's recipes do not (generally) call for the addition of any more oil at the curry cooking stage (but there is the addition of amounts of oil with any pre-fried onions, precooked chicken, pureed garlic/ginger, minced chillies, etc).  Whereas mine (like most that we are more familiar with) do.

Having said that, oil is our friend (curry cooking wise, if not health wise) and not our enemy.  I'm not particularly concerned with any of the above amounts of oil.

Nevertheless, I found BB1's original curry base and recipe "greasy" (rather than "oily").  I also put this down, in part, to the addition of a whole block of creamed coconut in the original recipe.  I have also found "greasiness" an issue (for me) with other bases using relatively large amounts of creamed coconut block (e.g. Ashoka).

Clearly BB1's original recipe was "work in progress" and, the fact that MYN has revised it AGAIN, suggests that it probably still is.

MYN, I think you might do us all a favour if you could please post the FULL recipe that you massaged to get the reduced quantities.  Each of us can then scale it as we deem to be appropriate (and, hopefully, get more mileage from this curry base and associated posts).