Interesting list there CA, as the poster above said it does make a lot of difference to the taste/smell of a curry if left for a couple of days and I have noticed exactly the same.
My Wife never eats all her Saturday night Madras I make and likes to save some for a Sunday evening snack,this sometimes is left until the Monday and I take it to work for lunch 
When reheated in the canteen at work the place smells like a t/a and my mates don't believe I made the curry 
and the flavour is much better than when made on the Saturday,whether this is because my senses have cleared or as I believe the spices are given time to infuse and the curry ' matures ' .
How a BIR achieve this maturity I don't know but as you have listed they don't use frozen base and if a home base is frozen perhaps the freezing stops the 'maturing' in it's tracks.
A BIR due to the high turnover would be using mostly fresh Spices all the time so that's another bonus.
I don't go with the idea that you need high heat to produce BIR curry's as I have seen first hand enough curry's cooked 'slowboat'  style full of BIR flavour 

Just my thoughts 

Quote from: JerryM on December 10, 2012, 07:35 PM
interesting post.

the dark colour is along the lines of the rajver which i make but not quite as dark - it's the inclusion of garam masala that does it.

the thickness does put me off and suggests to me that they have fried it before handing over - it would be well worth checking with the TA to confirm what was given.

there is a lot of onion in base - it looks like i would have it after the stage 1 cook ie just after blending. i then add a lot more water and cook for a further 1 hr.

looking forward if any further information can be gained - i take it the curries are top notch.

Agree with you there JerryM,
My Sister in Laws Son only eats and asks for the Gravy from his t/a but they just make a curry without the meat and not pure base from the pot,some time ago I asked my local t/a (the one that now uses an 'all in the base' gravy) for a container of gravy and they to added mix powder,chili and fresh coriander  : I wonder if this is what Burning Ring was given.
Also the last Zaal base I made I added an extra 1kg of Onions to see if it made any savoury difference - it didn't
and looked similar to BR's sample 

CH, we had better do what we can ourselves to keep the traditional BIR method going then 

I don't think Burning Ring has said it's a 'all in the base' style gravy unless I missed that which is quite possible  : I think he did say the gravy got thicker after it had been cooked down and spices added.

Bet their curry's have a nice spicy kick then 

Hi BR and welcome 
That base does look quite 'heavy' compared to most BIR's, is the gravy still that thick when you have a curry from them or do they add water to thin at final cooking stage.

A couple of other points, they don't use any oil to start their curry's they use a chef spoon of base and fry this down quite a bit before adding the meat and more gravy.
The oil they use is Pride make.

Just finished my t/a  as usual chef came out with the frying pan in one hand and tea spoon in the other for me to have a taste - was spicy enough (already asked for extra mix powder) but was not quite right, what was missing was......... salt.
They were too busy to ask questions but I will get the answers 

Hi all,
Just a couple of things you might find interesting.
My closest t/a use the ' all in the base ' technique of making their curry's as in no additional mix powder,g/g,tomato puree or salt is added when making the final curry,their curry's are a bit bland for my liking so I ask for extra mix powder when I order a t/a   : the chef knows me now and brings out a sample on a spoon for me to try before putting into the t/a container 
Although a little bland their 'all in the base' curry's still have the usual BIR smell and flavour even without the extra mix powder so does this go to prove the flavour must come from the base 

Also plenty of large buckets 10L ? of veg ghee ( taj mahal red and yellow containers ) about the place.
Noticed 25 L containers of Rapeseed oil .

cheers.

Here's mine 25 quid  ;D