Quote from: harley on December 28, 2012, 05:36 PM
The Worcestershire sauce point is a bit of a cheap shot to chewy, its not like some instant BIR must have or a dish transformer.

In my experience (of Haldi being on this forum for over 8 years!), Haldi is extremely reluctant to have a "cheap shot" at anyone, or anything.  He would feel ridden with guilt if he did so! 

If it appears so, it's because Haldi believes it to be the case (in my opinion).

I have also never experienced Worcester sauce being added to a curry (maybe it's a Northern thing?)

Quote from: George on December 28, 2012, 01:24 PM
It makes more sense to me than, for example, worrying about pressures at the top versus the bottom of a pan.

Well good for you George!  Why do you have to add something negative/antagonistic to almost of your posts? 

The question of the possible effect of pressure on cooking a curry base arose in a thread about why "I" can't replicate the taste and aroma of BIR curries.  A perfectly legitimate question.

The question was associated with whether there is a difference between cooking a small scale curry base and a large scale curry base.

Natterjack offered this as a potential difference.  Plausible, I'd say.  And certainly worthy of scrutiny.

The answers, I think, went some way to saying whether the scale of making the curry base is significant or not.

Nevertheless, NOT ONE person has said they have tried both and have, or haven't, discerned a difference between small scale and large scale.

PS:  perhaps you should post your comment in the relevant thread (instead on enticing highjacking of another one again?) 

Quote from: chewytikka on December 28, 2012, 01:48 PM
Just picking back up on this

Hi Jimmy Nomates,  ;D;D LOL typical response from you too, CA. I try not to bite, but your such a tool.

Exiled in Oz for years and as far away as possible from tasting an actual BIR curry, probably
fuels your feeling of frustration / inadequacy and constant lack of understanding of the subject.
you probably have Inadequate personality disorder? Therapy maybe

cheers Chewy

And I'm the tool Chewy? 

But you're right.  To my disadvantage (or probable advantage), I have not experienced BIR curries in recent years.  My advantage is that my benchmark is clearly BIR curries of "yesteryear" (which I want to reproduce).  The disadvantage is that I don't have a benchmark for BIR curries of "nowadays" (which, by the sounds of it, is no great deal!).

And you're also right.  I don't pretend to have all the answers to replicating BIR curries (of yesteryear)....unlike some of us seem to pretend  :

If you have nothing constructive to contribute to the topic of the thread, then maybe say nothing at all? 

You're right, great looking curry and LOVELY looking chips too! 

PS:  To put things totally into perspective, how hard is it to cook realy good chips!?  Bl**dy hard!

Quote from: CTMore Analysis Paralysis" and google blither

And, typical of you, CT, you pretend to know it all (and divulge little) and rubbish everything that anyone else dares to suggest (because, of course, you know best)!  Total bollocks, my man, total bollocks!  :

Quote from: CTand you can't fail to stink out the neighbours

As I'm sure you do!  Pretentious git!  :

Happy Christmas, guys and gals!  I trust that left over turkey will be put to good use in a great curry! 

In my opinion, unless Admin can show significant interest in the forum, then the forum will not grow (or will, indeed, die).

What are the benefits, to members, of "migrating" to another provider, or "rebranding"?  Why can't Admin state the benefits (to members) of doing so?  How hard is that?

I agree that a number of competent moderators are required.  As getonthegarabi suggests, moderating means much more than just deleting spam or deleting personally insulting comments.  However, moderators also need the full support of the owner/administrator (and that has never been forthcoming).

Also, moderators should not be selected by some sort of "Halo effect", as some seem so often to suggest.  They should be selected against agreed criteria (which I have posted before...I can't be arsed to find it now...but which has been largely ignored).

Admin has recently moved some threads that were posted in the wrong places.  I haven't seen that done for months and months (if not years).  The place is a train wreck (structurally wise).  You can't believe how galling it feels to someone who tried very hard to keep the place ship shape and tidy (for the benefit of the members) and got criticised for doing so.  Then see the structure of the forum turn into a train wreck.  Hell, Admin even posted THIS thread in the wrong place! 

The structure needs revamping (to make it easier and more logical for members to use), and it has needed revamping for months and months (if not years).

The forum is not, and should not, be simply about revenue raising (e.g. adverts and sponsorships) though I understand and accept that someone has to pay for the running of the forum.

To be honest, if someone sets up another forum, with an appropriate level of integrity, passion and support, I will also be out of here.  Or, anyway, I will be out of here, irrespectively....("Thank God!", you cry!  :).

Anyhow, good luck with the "migration" (whatever benefits that may bring).

My opinion only.

Quote from: natterjak on December 23, 2012, 02:27 PM
So the marginal increase in boiling point due to the height of a restaurant cooking pot looks to be rather modest in fact, so maybe it's not all that significant. Worth thinking about though.

I suppose it depends on how much chemical reaction is going on in the process, opposed to physical.  I assume that chemical reactions are minimal compared to physical.

However, if chemical reactions are actually significant, then a 10 degree rise in temperature will generally double the rate of reaction (i.e. Arrhenius equation).  So temperature (and, therefore, pressure) is definitely significant. I suppose the same may also be true for physical reactions (hence the effect of a pressure cooker!)?

So, yes, definitely worth thinking about (even if on Christmas Eve!) 

Perhaps whoever has made a large volume (i.e. greater than 60l) and cooked it for long periods (i.e. greater than 3 hours) would care to comment on any difference observed (e.g. Haldi?)?

Quote from: natterjak on December 22, 2012, 11:52 PM
From schoolboy physics: Higher pressure -----> higher boiling point. So the base sauce at the bottom of the restaurant chef's big pot could be making different chemical reactions to those which we achieve at home.

Perhaps someone good with maths can put some numbers to the problem, to compare the pressure in a domestic pressure cooker to that at the bottom of a large (restaurant sized) cooking pot and report back?

Interesting and innovative thinking NJ!  Something I've not considered as a possible rationale before.

If my physics and maths don't desert me, I deduce the following:

• Standard atmospheric pressure is about 100,000 Newtons per meter squared
• A pot of water, of 1 meter cubed (pretty big, for a pot of curry base, I know!), weighs about 1000kg
• The pressure, at the bottom of the 1 meter cubed pot of water, would be about 1000kg x 10 meters per second squared (i.e. acceleration due to gravity) = 10,000 Newtons per meter squared
• Therefore, the additional pressure, at the bottom of the pot, would be about 10% of the standard atmospheric pressure
• Therefore, if a typical pot, in a BIR, is filled to a depth of 50cm (assuming it is water), the pressure, at the bottom of the pot, would increase by about 5%
• Alternatively, the pressure, at the bottom of the pot, would increase by about 1% for each 10cm of depth of water....so by about 1% for a small batch of curry base with a depth of around 10cm

As I understand it, pressure cookers operate at a pressure of around 2 standard atmospheres of pressure? Which is about 10 times the additional pressure at the bottom of a 1 meter cubed pot of water.  And around 20 times the pressure at the bottom of a typical BIR pot (assuming it is 50cm deep).

Is my maths correct?

Either way, as it stands, a pressure cooker is pressurising far more than a big pot of curry base.  But who can say whether this is significant or not?

Three things for me to do, then:

• Cooker a large pot of curry base (60 litres or so) for long times (3 hours or more)
• Make a curry base using a pressure cooker (time to buy a new one!)
• Compare the results with my normal, small scale (2 litres or so) curry base cooked for relatively short (1 hour or so) times

Thanks for the insight NJ! 

Quote from: gagomes on December 23, 2012, 12:22 AM
This is something I've seen recommended a number of times, but I'm not entirely sure what to look for, could someone clarify it for me?

Hi Gagomes,

Perhaps the simplest way to understand this is to:

• Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a pan
• Make a paste of your powder spices by adding, for example, 1 tablespoons of water to 1 tsp of powdered spices (to make a paste of about the consistency of ketchup)
• Add the paste to the hot oil and fry it whilst stirring
• Initially, the spice paste will absorb the oil (probably with some sputtering)
• Keep frying it, for a minute or two, until most of the water has evaporated
• As the water evaporates, the oil will begin to "separate" from the mix (especially upon cooling)

"Separation of the oil" indicates that much of the aqueous content has evaporated.  Indirectly, the inference is that the spices have been "properly cooked" (though why it should indicate this, exactly, I do not know).