Thursday, 12 July 2018

Serving the perfect curry



A scientist at Warwick University, England, has come up with a recipe for the perfect curry, not in terms of its ingredients or method of cooking, but determined by the rules of mathematics.

Apparently the ancient Greeks had the right idea, although their connection with curry is one that would not strike many people. However, they did know all about proportions and devised what is known as the “golden ratio”. When applied to curry eating this means that you should load your fork with exactly the same quantities of meat (or vegetables), sauce and rice. This, says the scientist, one Dr Mark Hadley of the university’s Department of Physics, produces not only the tastiest mouthful but it looks good too.

Dr Hadley goes further by stipulating exactly how the perfect curry should be arranged on the plate. The circle of rice, for example, must be 61% wider than the mound of curry placed on top.

If you use a plate that is 27 centimetres in diameter, the bed of rice must be 22.5 centimetres wide and no more than five millimetres thick. The mound of curry must be 14 centimetres in diameter and 2.4 centimetres thick at its highest point.

So now you know! Next time you serve a curry, make sure that you use a ruler as one of your cooking utensils. Your curry won’t be perfect unless you do!

Incidentally, isn’t it good to know that our university research departments aren’t wasting their time with anything trivial?

© John Welford

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