Curry base sauce

[SauRoNZA]

I don't get the dic swinging contest which often goes on such threads. Cook what you think you can. Watch some YT videos and improvise. I lived much of my life in India and been making food since college age and intermittently eating outside as well and I am still surprised when I go to a relative's place (or a restaurant) and find new flavor just because they did things a bit differently or added a bit of this or that.

Just chill and cook. If you & your family like the food you make, that is the goal. Enjoy.

Like I said it’s close to people’s hearts because it has traditional origins more than logical ones and if you dare question that all hell breaks loose.

So I somewhat understand where it’s coming from, but it’s deeply unnecessary and really as the world moves on and we have more and more information there is nothing wrong with things changing and doing them better/different.

Let’s not even go into adding spices or seasonings that aren’t traditional, the world will end.

 

[Sideshow Bob]

Like I said it’s close to people’s hearts because it has traditional origins more than logical ones and if you dare question that all hell breaks loose.

So I somewhat understand where it’s coming from, but it’s deeply unnecessary and really as the world moves on and we have more and more information there is nothing wrong with things changing and doing them better/different.

Let’s not even go into adding spices or seasonings that aren’t traditional, the world will end.

Exactly. And if people before us didn't do things differently, I doubt if we will have such a diversity of food that we have now.

 

[Polymathic]

Please tone it down and stop fighting so hard.

It was simply a question to deeper understand from people who’ve done this for a long time and usually from their great grand mothers recipes handed down for generations and simply because that’s the way it’s always been done.

Marrow does not equal bone. The point still stands that scientifically the bone itself doesn’t actually do anything.

It’s not a factoid it’s a modern revelation of more scientific approaches to cooking, I tried not to list a hundred examples.

Calm down, I know it’s all very close to your heart, but it’s just a conversation.

Are you autistic or just trolling extra hard?

I just explained why your scientific fact doesn't really apply to cooking curry and you still harp on. Either you got your scientific fact from a headline of an article you didn't read properly or you didn't understand the context of the study.

Marrow is found in bones and is the reason why curries taste better when the meat is cooked on the bone.

To get a similar flavour to a boneless curry you'd need an additional ingredient which is stock, which is pretty hard to come by you if don't want the artificial tasting stock cube flavour or one needs to make stock themselves. Which is a whole nother process.

Or one can simply just cook the curry with the bones.

 

[RiaX]

Bone spreading the heat of cooking sounds like a weird comment. The utensil used to cook it does that, if anything the bone would make that more inconsistent not enhance it.

Your utensils transfer heat from your stove into your contents of your pot. How the heat disperses through the contents depends on the stuff you cooking.

Not sure I agree there. Slow cooking is slow cooking and if you are overcooking it then it’s because you are in too much of a rush not because you took the bone out.

Remember we talking DURBAN style curries here. Your filet will not survive the cooking times it will get tough and chewy. Remember for a good curry you need time for masalas to penetrate the protein.

If you want to make a filet based curry. The you would have to make your base separately. Switch your oil for ghee. This is how they make curries in India.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Are you autistic or just trolling extra hard?

I just explained why your scientific fact doesn't really apply to cooking curry and you still harp on. Either you got your scientific fact from a headline of an article you didn't read properly or you didn't understand the context of the study.

Marrow is found in bones and is the reason why curries taste better when the meat is cooked on the bone.

To get a similar flavour to a boneless curry you'd need an additional ingredient which is stock, which is pretty hard to come by you if don't want the artificial tasting stock cube flavour or one needs to make stock themselves. Which is a whole nother process.

Or one can simply just cook the curry with the bones.

Clearly haven’t discovered Nomu stock by the looks of it.

Cubes are trash, agreed. Nobody should use that ****.

 

[RonSwanson]

Oh I know, spent many weeks in Sri Lanka eating the very real thing with my hands.

Besides the fact that it can be wasteful cooking boneless or more expensive my argument is more than the bone itself doesn’t actually do anything for the cooking process.

The things you allude to are very much in the head and not actually related to taste. And that’s fine, I was just asking where the logic comes from and it seems purely traditional wrapped up into pseudo science as is the case for a lot of cooking techniques.

Logically, the easiest way to extract meat from the bone is to cook it, and I do believe that it does impart flavour. The same with the chicken skin, I leave it on. To me it tastes better, and taste is subjective, definitely not a science.

You have a theory that it makes no difference, but you are biased because it suits your narrative of making it easier to eat, something which you value highly. You would need to provide scientific proof that it tastes the same, and by virtue of the fact that taste is subjective, you cannot, you don't have a metric for it. So rather say that it's your preference, it's quite OK to have a preference.
But please do not call it science, it isn't. You are further trying to "poison the well" by drawing parallels with people that do things because "that's the way grandma did it", painting proponents on bone-in cooking to be thoughtless morons. That's a poor argument and even worse science.

Each to his own, live and let live.

 

[RiaX]

Clearly haven’t discovered Nomu stock by the looks of it.

Cubes are trash, agreed. Nobody should use that ****.

I prefer Ina parmans stock powder. The high tier store stocks are great but they too expensive and have a very short shelf life.

Stock it not that hard to make and you can just freeze it in a ice cube tray. You'd get a cheaper far superior product than any store bought stuff.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Logically, the easiest way to extract meat from the bone is to cook it, and I do believe that it does impart flavour. The same with the chicken skin, I leave it on. To me it tastes better, and taste is subjective, definitely not a science.

You have a theory that it makes no difference, but you are biased because it suits your narrative of making it easier to eat, something which you value highly. You would need to provide scientific proof that it tastes the same, and by virtue of the fact that taste is subjective, you cannot, you don't have a metric for it. So rather say that it's your preference, it's quite OK to have a preference.
But please do not call it science, it isn't. You are further trying to "poison the well" by drawing parallels with people that do things because "that's the way grandma did it", painting proponents on bone-in cooking to be thoughtless morons. That's a poor argument and even worse science.

Each to his own, live and let live.

Oh the science wasn’t/isn’t mine at all, I don’t have the time for that. The theory isn’t my own either and hence the questions for a deeper understanding.

But like I said I have tried it at least once with thighs. There are too many variables and other things and time required to do comparisons.

Like Surface said at the end of the day does it taste good or doesn’t it is really all that matters.

And the reason I asked the question was to see if it’s simply because “grandma said so” which I’m happy to say mostly doesn’t appear to be the case here.

Now on the topic of skin on or skin off that one is much more obvious as it does have flavour and other elements in and of itself, but there’s also a time and place for when to use or not use that.

I actually don’t always avoid the bone, mostly just with chicken because it’s hard work to eat. Oh and crab, **** that by the time I’m done I’m hungry again from all the work.

You’ll note I didn’t come in here fighting or really trying to even convince anyone, I was just asking questions regarding the origins of the logic to cooking.

 

[SauRoNZA]

I prefer Ina parmans stock powder. The high tier store stocks are great but they too expensive and have a very short shelf life.

Stock it not that hard to make and you can just freeze it in a ice cube tray. You'd get a cheaper far superior product than any store bought stuff.

I find her stuff overly salty.

Nomu is actually quite cheap/reasonable when you look at how much it dilutes.

Generally I also don’t really believe in shelf lives, more so for the liquid varieties of things.

Cheaper is relative when you consider time/effort/electricity and quite frankly I find the Nomu stuff better than homemade. I do agree that other off the shelf ones are very rarely any good.

 

[RonSwanson]

Oh and crab, **** that by the time I’m done I’m hungry again from all the work.

Makes two of us.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Makes two of us.

I thought surely one big crab would be much better than a number of little ones as they love to use for curries in Asia.

Not a chance, it was even more work overall and greased up to my elbows.

 

[RiaX]

Seafood shells contain most of the flavors of the seafood. That's a different ball game now. Also crustacean meat is extremely delicate. So the shell protects it.

I dont eat crab for the same reason. It's too much effort and I'm hungry afterwards lol.

There's also water and juices inside the animal that is lost when you deshell it in the cleaning process (like clams).

I learnt this when making clam vongole. You will never get that pasta to taste epic without the shell

 

[RiaX]

Generally I also don’t really believe in shelf lives, more so for the liquid varieties of things

Medically speaking liquids are the ones you suppose to take the shelf life seriously. Unless it's oil based. Microorganisms require liquid to thrive.

Chemically organic compounds degrade faster in liquids. That's why in the lab when we powder things we use a cryogenic dessicator.

Though I'm pretty sure the preservatives or preservation technique will out last the best before date easily.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Medically speaking liquids are the ones you suppose to take the shelf life seriously. Unless it's oil based. Microorganisms require liquid to thrive.

Chemically organic compounds degrade faster in liquids. That's why in the lab when we powder things we use a cryogenic dessicator.

Though I'm pretty sure the preservatives or preservation technique will out last the best before date easily.

Yeah I’m not saying use it indefinitely.

Just that I don’t throw things away the moment they pass best before.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Seafood shells contain most of the flavors of the seafood. That's a different ball game now. Also crustacean meat is extremely delicate. So the shell protects it.

I dont eat crab for the same reason. It's too much effort and I'm hungry afterwards lol.

There's also water and juices inside the animal that is lost when you deshell it in the cleaning process (like clams).

I learnt this when making clam vongole. You will never get that pasta to taste epic without the shell

Oh yeah I fully agree you can’t get rid of the shells for seafood, especially since the taste is already so subtle as it is.

Crab is just annoying to eat.

 

[RiaX]

I like nomu products. Maybe I'll give the stock a try. The vanilla paste is epic for baking and stuff.

 

[TheMightyQuin]

Clearly haven’t discovered Nomu stock by the looks of it.

Cubes are trash, agreed. Nobody should use that ****.

I've been using the liquid Ina Paarman stock, but it is very salty. Never knew about this...grabbing some off of Takealot as we speak.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Obieone]

Some amazing info here, thanks guys!

 

[Polymathic]

All this speak of stock reminds me about probably one of my favourite ingredients to put on anything savoury: MSG.

You might also find it in the spice aisle labelled "Zeal"

 

[RonSwanson]

All this speak of stock reminds me about probably one of my favourite ingredients to put on anything savoury: MSG.

You might also find it in the spice aisle labelled "Zeal"