1 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:08,160 Whether you like a korma, a jalfrezi or a vindaloo, 2 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:12,000 curry is our unofficial national dish. 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:13,120 Over our lifetime, 4 00:00:13,120 --> 00:00:19,080 we will each spend over £30,000 feeding this spicy habit. 5 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:26,040 Tonight, we are taking you inside one of the UK's largest 6 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:27,880 cooking sauce factories. 7 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:36,200 The team that work here churn out more than 50 million jars 8 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:37,920 every year. 9 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:41,960 'I'm Gregg Wallace...' 10 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:44,280 Whoa! 11 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:48,600 I actually wasn't aware that there was that much yoghurt in the world. 12 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:51,480 '..and I'm sniffing out...' That smells good. 13 00:00:51,480 --> 00:00:55,160 '..the secrets of super-sized curry cookery.' 14 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:58,920 So there is enough there now for 25,000 people? Yeah. 7,000 jars. 15 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:02,720 'I'm Cherry Healy...' 16 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:07,560 I have come to the chilli capital of India to help with the harvest. 17 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:11,080 '..and I'm getting hot under the collar...' It's up my nose now. 18 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:15,880 That is seriously hot. '..working out what to drink to beat the burn.' 19 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:18,080 After you've had a couple of sips, 20 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:22,040 can I ask you please to rate your discomfort again? 21 00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:26,640 And historian Ruth Goodman reveals the surprising origins of our 22 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:32,800 favourite curries. If somebody had said, "What nation does this dish come from?" I wouldn't have a clue. 23 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:37,120 Over the next 24 hours, 24 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:42,840 250,000 jars of curry sauce will fly off this production line. 25 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:46,960 And we're going to lift the lid on the hard work that goes into every jar. 26 00:01:46,960 --> 00:01:49,640 Welcome to Inside The Factory. 27 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:52,480 UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS 28 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,320 This is the Premier Foods factory in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. 29 00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:22,680 More than a million jars of cooking sauce are produced here every week. 30 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:30,520 They make sauces for pasta bakes and Chinese feasts, 31 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:32,120 as well as curry sauce. 32 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:39,720 Tonight, we'll be taking a look at their best seller - 33 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:41,280 tikka masala sauce. 34 00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:52,280 It all starts here, at the ingredient arrival area. 35 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:54,400 Morning, Gregg. You all right? 36 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:58,520 Operations manager Paul Seaton is overseeing the delivery. 37 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:02,880 Paul, I have to admit, I don't actually know what is in a tikka masala. 38 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:07,000 It's a tomato-based curry. There's about 12 different ingredients in. 39 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,240 So what's getting unloaded there now? We're unloading the tomato paste, the tomato puree. 40 00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:15,720 All those drums are tomato puree? Yeah, there's just over 100 drums there. 41 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:18,600 How many jars are you going to make, then, today? 42 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:21,880 Today we're going to make about 250,000 jars. 43 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:25,360 Me and you are going to make a 3,000kg batch. 44 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:27,880 I am very, very much looking forward to this. 45 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:30,800 Yeah. I've got a rucksack full of naan, we're going to have a great 46 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:33,000 time. Paul, thank you. Thank you very much. 47 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:39,760 100 kilos of this puree, 48 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:44,800 containing more than 4,000 tomatoes, is off-loaded for our batch. 49 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,320 Our tikka masala sauce production starts now. 50 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:56,640 I'm heading to the batching area to weigh out some of the sauce's 11 51 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:00,600 other ingredients, with technical operator Paul Swift. 52 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:05,200 The two biggest by weight are double cream and yoghurt. 53 00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:09,680 This is our mixing bowl, on the weighing scales. Where's the 54 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:12,920 readout? There's the reading up there. Oh, OK. How much do I need? 55 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:15,240 270 kilos into there. 56 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:17,440 Over a quarter of a tonne of yoghurt? 57 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:19,480 Yes. Can I have a go? 58 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:23,360 I think I can trust you to let you do that. Paul might well regret this. 59 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:25,600 I know I'm only pressing a button, but I tell you what, 60 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:29,240 I'm slightly nervous, cos that's a serious amount of yoghurt. HE LAUGHS 61 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:34,400 The Greek yoghurt adds a distinct 62 00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:37,400 flavour and will help thicken the sauce. 63 00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:41,400 I actually wasn't aware that there was that much yoghurt in the world. LAUGHTER 64 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:46,760 I kind of want to strip off and get in. 65 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:51,400 Stop at 279, right? No, 269. Stop! 66 00:04:51,400 --> 00:04:54,840 Oh! I'm two kilos over. 67 00:04:54,840 --> 00:04:57,600 Thankfully, this is within acceptable levels. 68 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:03,760 So what we need to do now is put 240 kilos of double cream. 69 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:07,760 When you said to me, "You need to put in double cream and yoghurt," 70 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:09,520 I thought, "How DAIR-Y? 71 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:12,600 Come on! Anyone? 72 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:14,560 HE LAUGHS 73 00:05:17,280 --> 00:05:20,600 The cream does a different job from the yoghurt - 74 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:24,600 it provides a smooth texture and softens some of the stronger 75 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:26,240 spice flavours. 76 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,800 Five more kilos. You'd better turn off. 77 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:33,080 You'd better turn off. 78 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:35,360 Aaah! 79 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:38,400 How do I get it on? Oh, I'm getting a bit stressed out. 80 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:44,360 Oh, look, look, look, I'm so close! 81 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:46,480 You're a natural, Gregg. 82 00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:50,800 So, just over half a tonne of yoghurt and cream. 83 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:52,840 Wow! A lot. 84 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:58,840 Creamy dishes like tikka masala and korma are our favourites here in 85 00:05:58,840 --> 00:06:02,800 Britain. But when did this love of curry begin? 86 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:05,840 Ruth is on a mouthwatering investigation. 87 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:11,600 There seems to be no bounds to our love for curry - 88 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:16,440 there are over 12,000 curry houses and takeaways in Britain. 89 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:22,120 In pride of place on many of their menus, of course, 90 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:23,920 is chicken tikka masala. 91 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:29,080 The legend goes that it was invented in Glasgow, in the 1970s, 92 00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:32,840 when a customer ordered tandoori chicken and then complained that 93 00:06:32,840 --> 00:06:36,520 it was far too dry. Now, the chef, wishing to please his customer, 94 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:38,800 had a quick look around and 95 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:42,480 added this - a tin of tomato soup - 96 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:44,520 and so a legend was born. 97 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:52,240 But our British passion for curry is 370 years older than tikka masala. 98 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:57,640 'And it's linked to a surprising location - 99 00:06:57,640 --> 00:06:59,880 'London's financial district...' 100 00:06:59,880 --> 00:07:01,840 Lizzie. Hello. Hello. How nice to meet you. 101 00:07:01,840 --> 00:07:04,280 '..where I'm meeting food historian Lizzie Collingham.' 102 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:09,920 Behind us is the site of the old East India Company house. 103 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:12,880 It was founded in 1601 to trade in spices. 104 00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:18,920 The East India Company sent thousands of employees to India to 105 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:21,120 buy and sell spices. 106 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:24,680 While they were there, they got a taste for the food. 107 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:29,040 So, this is the start, then, of the British connection with curry? 108 00:07:29,040 --> 00:07:31,840 It is, yeah. 109 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:35,360 But the word "curry" was itself a misunderstanding. 110 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:40,400 "Khari" was the word for a particular spicy sauce. 111 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:43,320 In the mouths of the British, this became "curry", 112 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:47,120 which was used as a catchall term for any Indian dish. 113 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:51,720 But no Indian eats curry, they... It's a word... Really? No. 114 00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:54,320 So if you ask an Indian what they are eating, they'll say, 115 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:56,640 "I'm eating rogan josh, I'm eating vindaloo, 116 00:07:56,640 --> 00:07:59,080 "I'm eating..." the name for the dish. 117 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:02,760 So, curry, right from the beginning, is a British appropriation. 118 00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:08,560 When they returned to Britain, the traders brought their taste for 119 00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:13,120 spicy dishes back with them and asked their cooks to recreate these 120 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:16,080 exotic recipes. 121 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:20,120 The first published recipe was in Hannah Glasse's book, 122 00:08:20,120 --> 00:08:23,120 published in 1747, called, beautifully, 123 00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:28,840 To Make A Curry The India Way. Oh, that's fabulous! 124 00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:32,640 Hannah's ground-breaking cookery book included pilau rice, 125 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:34,680 along with chicken or rabbit curry. 126 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:41,960 Lizzie and I are following this recipe, 127 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:46,320 bringing Britain's first recorded curry back to life. 128 00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:50,320 We have to take two fowls or rabbit and cut them into small pieces. OK. 129 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:54,960 "Sippets" is what they called them. Sippets, sort of mouthfuls, isn't it? Chunks, yeah. 130 00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:56,760 I love all those mad old words. 131 00:08:56,760 --> 00:09:01,280 30 peppercorns - do you think we need to count them out? Yeah, go on. RUTH LAUGHS 132 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:04,680 A spoonful of rice. About that? Yep. Spoon. 133 00:09:04,680 --> 00:09:08,240 I think that they were using it as a thickener. 134 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:13,440 And then... Browned coriander seeds over the fire in a clear shovel. 135 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:16,200 I wondered what that was for. THEY LAUGH 136 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:23,680 So, we need to probably heat the shovel up a bit. THEY LAUGH 137 00:09:23,680 --> 00:09:26,880 What we want is for them to start popping and crackling. 138 00:09:26,880 --> 00:09:30,680 Oh, almost like popcorn. Yeah. They wouldn't have had a roasting pan, 139 00:09:30,680 --> 00:09:34,480 so, in the 18th century, they would have been cooking over an open fire. 140 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:40,480 Smell that. It even lingers on your fingers. Yes, they're releasing the aromas, that's starting to come 141 00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:42,440 out. So, those are ready. 142 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:48,000 The recipe also calls for ginger, turmeric and onions. 143 00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:51,640 You want to massage it into the meat. 144 00:09:51,640 --> 00:09:54,920 And then...put it all together into a saucepan with a pint of water. 145 00:09:57,120 --> 00:10:00,160 Now, this, I have to say, is not sounding very Indian to me. 146 00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:05,160 No. Now, an Indian cook would fry the spices gently first, 147 00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:07,520 so that the spices flavour the oil. 148 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:11,280 This is a further Anglicisation... And when I pour this big jug of 149 00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:13,600 water in, I'm busily "Englishing" this... 150 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:18,960 You're making a spicy casserole instead of an Indian dish! THEY LAUGH 151 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:28,840 The colours are not particularly attractive. 152 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:34,960 It's really good. Well, you know... 153 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:36,680 That is really quite yummy. 154 00:10:36,680 --> 00:10:39,600 But if somebody said, "What nation does this dish come from...?" 155 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:41,720 No, you wouldn't guess India. I wouldn't guess. 156 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:42,960 No. I wouldn't have a clue. 157 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:48,880 Our modern curries may have a little more finesse, 158 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:52,960 but they're still a British take on Indian traditions. 159 00:10:52,960 --> 00:10:58,880 And the joy of eating curry in Britain is just that, that it's a 160 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:01,920 fusion and unique to Britain. 161 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:15,280 In Worksop, I'm preparing the ingredients for a 3,000-kilo batch 162 00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:19,520 of curry sauce - enough to feed 25,000 people. 163 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:23,840 And, just like when I make a curry at home, 164 00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:27,760 I'm measuring out the ingredients. 165 00:11:27,760 --> 00:11:28,800 BLEEPING 166 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:34,760 Who-o-o-o-o-oa!! How cold is it in here? 167 00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:38,000 This is minus 25 degrees. What do we need to get from in here? 168 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:40,360 In here, we need our frozen onions. 169 00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:42,440 They're in the blue sack? In the blue bags. 170 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:44,480 We need our frozen garlic, 171 00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:46,080 we need our frozen ginger, 172 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:48,360 and, at the end, we need our frozen coriander. 173 00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:53,320 Wow, it's so cold! HE LAUGHS 174 00:11:54,400 --> 00:11:56,360 To preserve their freshness, 175 00:11:56,360 --> 00:11:59,800 these ingredients are harvested and frozen at source. 176 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:04,200 All right. I'll open them, you do the carrying. OK. 177 00:12:04,200 --> 00:12:05,880 Stands to reason. 178 00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:12,640 We need 40 kilos of frozen ginger puree, 179 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:14,520 30 kilos of garlic - 180 00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:19,320 containing a whopping 10,000 individual cloves - 181 00:12:19,320 --> 00:12:21,880 and 80 kilos of onions! 182 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:28,880 40 kilos of desiccated coconut will give the sauce a grainy texture. 183 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:31,560 Can I? Of course. 184 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:35,000 Cor! Nice. Might want a bit of chocolate sauce. 185 00:12:36,320 --> 00:12:40,200 Coconut flour will thicken the mix, so we add 30 kilos. 186 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:44,440 I could ski down that. 187 00:12:44,440 --> 00:12:48,360 One final ingredient - coriander, all the way from France. 188 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:51,760 25 minutes in, our ingredients are prepped. 189 00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:57,440 And that's it, job done. Thank you, big fella. OK, see you. 190 00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:01,320 I'm moving into the kitchen to 191 00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:04,920 transform them into tikka masala sauce. 192 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:07,520 And this isn't simple one-pot cooking - 193 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:11,160 I'm faced with two enormous stainless steel tanks, 194 00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:14,280 looked after by Carl Gladwin. 195 00:13:14,280 --> 00:13:18,040 Right, OK, this is the blender? It is, yeah. In the first tank, 196 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:23,320 'the tomato puree I saw unloaded earlier is mixing with cold water...' 197 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:27,480 That is now a big pot of cold tomato soup. 198 00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:29,280 It is, yeah. That's gazpacho. 199 00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:33,560 '..to which we add an ingredient that will transform our sauce.' 200 00:13:33,560 --> 00:13:35,920 Your paprika. Paprika?! 201 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:39,040 Yeah. But that's not in powdered form, that's liquid. 202 00:13:39,040 --> 00:13:44,680 Yeah, just a liquid, yeah. Mixes into sauces a lot better in the liquid form. 203 00:13:44,680 --> 00:13:48,360 The natural pigments in paprika, called carotenoids, 204 00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:51,520 create tikka masala's traditional orange colour. 205 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:55,200 That's changed it from a brown to a beautiful rust. 206 00:13:55,200 --> 00:13:57,040 Yeah. 207 00:13:57,040 --> 00:14:00,640 While this mixes, we put the second tank into action. 208 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:05,480 This is the liquiverter. Liquiverter? Yeah. 209 00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:08,560 Liquiverter?! Yeah. Is that your pet name for it? 210 00:14:08,560 --> 00:14:10,840 No, it's not mine, that's what they called it. 211 00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:12,000 Liquiverter One, yeah. 212 00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:18,720 Carl adds 350 litres of water to the liquiverter, 213 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:22,000 which will be followed by a special blend of spices. 214 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:23,480 What's in the spice mix? 215 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:26,840 It's 12 different spices, but it's all top secret, 216 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:29,680 they won't let us know what's actually in it. 217 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:32,440 So you don't actually know? No, secret recipe. 218 00:14:32,440 --> 00:14:36,600 How long have you been here? 28 years. And you don't know? No. 219 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:39,520 You wouldn't lie to me, Carl, would you? No. 220 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:44,160 The liquiverter is a high-shear mixer, 221 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:47,080 capable of stirring water extremely fast. 222 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:53,640 Its eight blades rotate at 1,500rpm. 223 00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:56,280 Wow! That's powerful! 224 00:14:56,280 --> 00:15:01,520 This speed is essential, because dry spices don't dissolve in water. 225 00:15:01,520 --> 00:15:06,000 The only way to properly combine these two ingredients is to force 226 00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:09,080 them together using huge amounts of energy. 227 00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:15,480 Whilst the contents of this mix are a closely-guarded secret, 228 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:20,200 I'm confident there's one spice that's definitely in here - 229 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:21,440 chilli. 230 00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:26,800 And Cherry's on its trail in India. 231 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:29,800 INDIAN HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYS 232 00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:37,440 She's in the city of Guntur, in the eastern state of Andhra Pradesh. 233 00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:49,040 This is the Guntur chilli market, 234 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:52,560 the largest chilli market in the world - and the smell is quite 235 00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:55,480 overpowering. Everyone's eyes are streaming and they're coughing. 236 00:15:55,480 --> 00:15:57,840 It's incredibly strong. 237 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:03,400 They sell around 3,500 tonnes of chilli here every day. 238 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:07,040 It's a £72 million a year industry. 239 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:10,680 So, this is what I've come for - the Guntur chilli. 240 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:13,520 This vibrant red chilli grows well in the hot, 241 00:16:13,520 --> 00:16:19,440 humid climate of this region, which produces 50% of India's chilli crop. 242 00:16:22,760 --> 00:16:28,400 Farms are small-scale, and average just two acres in size. 243 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:31,640 Hello. Can you introduce me to your gang? 244 00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:33,600 SHE SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE 245 00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:37,240 Hi, everyone. Hello! 246 00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:42,080 Chilli production supports the livelihoods of 10 million people 247 00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:43,680 in India. 248 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:46,000 Which one is a good one and which one is a bad one? 249 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:48,080 What about something like that? No? 250 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:51,600 So really, really red. So that's a good one, yeah? 251 00:16:53,240 --> 00:16:55,240 How long have you been picking chillies? 252 00:16:56,520 --> 00:17:00,320 50?! 50 years of picking chillies! 253 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:02,000 Is this a good harvest? 254 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:04,360 Are you pleased with how they've been growing? 255 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:11,520 They look beautiful. I mean, they're so red. 256 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:17,760 This variety is a reliable, heavy-cropping plant that 257 00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:21,400 is harvested between January and April each year. 258 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:26,720 A good harvest produces around 2.5 tonnes per acre. 259 00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:31,400 And a quarter of this is destined for the export market. 260 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:37,960 This is just one farm and one morning - that's a lot of chillies, 261 00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:40,920 every single one picked by hand. 262 00:17:43,920 --> 00:17:47,160 Processing begins out here in the fields. 263 00:17:47,160 --> 00:17:50,160 The crop is spread out and left to dry in the sun. 264 00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:55,720 Priyanka is helping to coordinate this year's harvest. 265 00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:59,720 Hi, Priyanka. Hello, Cherry. So, what's going on here? 266 00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:03,840 So, after ten days of drying, these ladies start grading the chillies. 267 00:18:03,840 --> 00:18:07,520 Right. So, here you see there are a lot of discoloured chillies. 268 00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:10,880 So they're quality control. Yeah, they're quality control. 269 00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:12,400 After 20 days, 270 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:16,760 the dried chillies are ready to be bagged up, using an age-old method. 271 00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:20,120 I'm assuming that's just to pack everything down. 272 00:18:20,120 --> 00:18:22,080 Yeah, that's for packing down. OK. 273 00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:24,520 I've got to have a go at that! LAUGHTER 274 00:18:27,120 --> 00:18:28,160 SHE LAUGHS 275 00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:34,600 This is really fun. 276 00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:38,320 When I woke up this morning, I didn't think I'd be standing in a 277 00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:40,280 bag of chillies. It actually feels really nice, 278 00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:43,960 because they're all crunchy and crispy under my feet. 279 00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:45,840 It's a very satisfying experience. 280 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,760 Each hessian sack is given a barcode, 281 00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:53,360 loaded up onto a truck, 282 00:18:53,360 --> 00:18:57,440 and then driven to the ITC spice processing factory in Guntur. 283 00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:05,280 They receive 18 deliveries a day from 3,200 different farms. 284 00:19:05,280 --> 00:19:07,520 Venkat Nagesh is the factory manager. 285 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:11,400 Hi, Nagesh. Hi, Cherry. Lovely to meet you. Yes. 286 00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:12,800 All right, so what are we doing? 287 00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:16,920 How many chillies are in here? 288 00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:21,800 35 kilos. And how many bags go through the factory? 289 00:19:23,880 --> 00:19:26,480 That is an astounding amount of chillies. 290 00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:30,160 All right. So I suppose we'd better get moving. 291 00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:32,280 Up, up, up. 292 00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:35,760 The chillies are dropped onto a conveyor belt and spread out. 293 00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:40,400 What are you cleaning it for? 294 00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:50,600 The clean chillies are sucked up and whizzed into the next room to be 295 00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:52,160 turned into flakes. 296 00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:57,480 Wow! So there they are. 297 00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:01,440 Beautiful! So strong! 298 00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:04,800 My nose and my eyes are streaming! 299 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:07,600 The flakes are cleaned again - reassuring, 300 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:09,640 given that my feet have been all over them. 301 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:17,120 It's heated up in here? Yeah. 302 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:24,520 Why is it so important to kill the microbes? 303 00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,080 Then there's one final transformation. 304 00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:44,000 So, where is this big parcel of chilli going to go? 305 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:50,160 Over the whole world? Yes. 306 00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:54,400 They produce more than 11,000 tonnes of chilli powder each year, 307 00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:57,440 feeding our global passion for this fiery flavour. 308 00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:04,200 So, there it is - the beautiful, vibrant chilli - 309 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:07,080 and what an amazing journey it's been on. 310 00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:08,520 But it's not finished yet, 311 00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:12,440 cos this will go on to spice up the curries we know and love. 312 00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:26,680 Back in the Worksop factory, we're 35 minutes into production. 313 00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:31,520 Ground chilli powder has been joined by 11 other top-secret spices. 314 00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:37,240 Ingredients prepped, we can finally cook my tikka masala sauce. 315 00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:39,840 This is our kettle? Yeah, this is the kettle, yeah. 316 00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:42,400 That's the big cooking pot? Yeah. 317 00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:47,240 What's the first thing in, Carl? Rapeseed oil. Oh, right, I can see that. 318 00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:51,240 Does that get heated first? No. No, it doesn't get heated yet. 319 00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:53,640 Once everything's gone in, it starts to heat up. 320 00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:57,720 At home I mix up onions with chilli, 321 00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:00,160 garlic and ginger, and then I 322 00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:04,040 basically fry it all in the bottom of a pan. Yeah. 323 00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:06,120 And THEN I add the spices. 324 00:22:06,120 --> 00:22:08,720 And it's all heating up, THEN I add the tomatoes. 325 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:12,280 Ah. I cook it one bit at a time. You wait till it's all together. 326 00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:13,320 Yeah. 327 00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:21,480 Into this massive mixer we add chopped tomatoes, our tomato puree, 328 00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:25,800 lemon juice, starch powder and the watery spice mix. 329 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:31,560 'In goes a tidal wave of yoghurt and cream...' 330 00:22:36,920 --> 00:22:38,400 OK, Gregg. 331 00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:42,880 Whoa! 332 00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:49,320 Fabulous! 333 00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:53,000 '..followed by 250 kilos of hot water.' 334 00:22:57,120 --> 00:22:58,720 Wow! 335 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:01,160 Finally, the frozen ingredients are added. 336 00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:07,360 This is heavy. And we don't want to miss a scrap. 337 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:13,960 'Which means deploying an unusual kitchen implement...' Yeah? 338 00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:17,320 '..a hosepipe.' 339 00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:24,160 But I'm worried that all this extra water might be mucking up the recipe. 340 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:25,520 Whatever water you put in there, 341 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:28,240 there's a final water top-up at the end of the batch, 342 00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:31,840 and it'll deduct that water that's gone in there out of the final water 343 00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:33,960 top-up. So, whatever water I've put in there... 344 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:37,680 Yeah, it'll... ..the mix will know, and it'll put less hot water in. 345 00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:42,320 Yeah. Now the tank heats up and my tikka masala starts cooking. 346 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:49,280 There we are. We got it! 347 00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:51,960 Can I have a look, because this is the curry sauce now, right? 348 00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:55,080 Can I have a look? Yeah, you can, yeah. Just lift it up. 349 00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:56,600 Whoa! There you go. 350 00:23:56,600 --> 00:24:00,320 Fully made curry. Hot, steaming, curry sauce! 351 00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:03,040 So there's enough there now for 25,000 people, right? 352 00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:06,800 Yeah, 7,000 jars. We deserve a couple of jars, mate, don't we? 353 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:08,880 I'm having some, definitely! THEY LAUGH 354 00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:15,040 Our batch still has a long way to go before it's ready for dinner. 355 00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:20,680 Today, we'll crack open almost 180,000 jars of curry sauce, 356 00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:23,600 and most of us will be eating it with rice. 357 00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:27,040 Cherry has been to sort her pilau from her basmati. 358 00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:34,440 We Brits spend more than £62 million on rice each month. 359 00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:38,840 Basmati is the bestseller, 360 00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:44,000 and 50,000 tonnes of it is processed at the VeeTee factory in Kent 361 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:46,040 every year. 362 00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:49,160 I'm meeting operations manager TJ Singh. 363 00:24:50,360 --> 00:24:53,520 How does rice begin its life? 364 00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:55,800 Well, like all other grasses... 365 00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:57,720 Rice is a grass? It is. 366 00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:01,040 This is part of the rice plant, which bears the grain, 367 00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:03,960 and you can see it has got little shells, 368 00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:07,880 and one of these has got a rice grain in each one of them. 369 00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:12,240 Each grain is a single seed, 370 00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:16,480 which grows in a protective layer, known as a husk. 371 00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:20,800 After harvesting, this is stripped away, leaving grains of brown rice. 372 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:25,240 But what about white rice? 373 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:28,520 Well, this is brown rice and this is also white rice. 374 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:31,240 We have to take its outer layer off. 375 00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,280 So, when the darker outer layer of the seed is removed, 376 00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:36,560 it reveals the familiar white grain. 377 00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:42,760 So, brown rice and white rice are in fact the same...? 378 00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:45,240 Yes, absolutely, the same grain. 379 00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:52,440 Long-grain white rice like this accounts for 84% of the rice 380 00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:55,480 we eat in the UK. 381 00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:57,360 It's ideal for eating with curry, 382 00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:00,440 but is notoriously hard to cook correctly. 383 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:04,640 In the factory's kitchen, 384 00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:09,200 chef Monisha Bharadwaj is giving me the lowdown on getting rice right. 385 00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:14,800 OK, so, first things first, let's see how you make rice at home. 386 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:16,600 Well, I make it brilliantly, 387 00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:19,680 because it's different every time, so you never really know what you're 388 00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:22,960 going to get. Come on, show me how you do it. 389 00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:26,400 That's two people, probably? Water. 390 00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:27,440 Sloshy-slosh. 391 00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:34,840 How long do you think it'll take to cook? I tap it to see if it's ready. 392 00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:36,240 So, starting to get soft now. 393 00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:39,080 OK, and you know that because you've been tapping it... 394 00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,400 It's the tap-tap. The tap-tap? Tap-tap! SHE LAUGHS 395 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:49,760 Can I interest you in a slice of rice, Monisha? 396 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:51,880 Thank you, I've never had one before. 397 00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:59,080 How is it raw and mushy 398 00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:01,280 at the same time? 399 00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:03,080 I mean, it's slightly... 400 00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:06,040 Inedible? I've given this to people for supper. 401 00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:08,760 And they've never come back. CHERRY LAUGHS 402 00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:12,840 Monisha has four foolproof rules to ensure I never mess up my rice 403 00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:16,640 again. So, I'm making rice by the absorption method. 404 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:20,600 The absorption method. Mm-hmm. One measure of rice and double the 405 00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:23,280 amount of water by volume. That's crucial. 406 00:27:24,360 --> 00:27:29,960 Measuring out rice and water in this one-to-two ratio is rule number one. 407 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:32,920 So, let's start off by washing the rice, because it's still got a 408 00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,840 little bit of loose starch. The second rule is to rinse, 409 00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:41,080 because any starch left on the grains will make them clog together. 410 00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:44,520 Give it a good rinse till the water runs clear. 411 00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:47,280 Rule three - use the right pan. 412 00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,480 You want to choose a pan that is heavy-bottomed and has a 413 00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,920 tight-fitting lid. Why is that important? Because you want to lock 414 00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:56,240 the steam in, that's what's going to cook the rice. 415 00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,120 The rice is going to absorb all the liquid that you put in here, so you 416 00:27:59,120 --> 00:28:01,080 don't want any of the steam to escape. 417 00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:04,400 Tip it all into the pan 418 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:06,160 and turn up the heat. 419 00:28:08,120 --> 00:28:12,160 So, the rice has come up to the boil, I'll just give it a little stir. OK. 420 00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:14,120 I turn the heat right down... 421 00:28:14,120 --> 00:28:17,080 Wow! ..and put this lid on. 422 00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:20,960 The final rule is, leave it alone! 423 00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:25,160 You don't want to lift the lid, you don't want to peek, 424 00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:27,200 you just leave it and let it do its thing. 425 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,760 It's very low-maintenance, this method. 426 00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:32,040 It is. After ten minutes, 427 00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,840 turn off the heat and let it stand for another five minutes... 428 00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,960 ..then serve. It's not porridge! SHE LAUGHS 429 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:45,440 Every grain is separate, it's all fluffed up. 430 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:49,560 It tastes nutty and sweet and lovely. 431 00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:53,400 Because it's got the aroma, it's got the taste and it's also got texture. 432 00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:02,840 All this rice needs now is the perfect curry to go with it. 433 00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:09,440 And I'm getting on with that back at the factory. 434 00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:14,280 While my curry sauce is simmering away... 435 00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:20,720 ..I'm going to meet Ray Caldwell, and rustle up some accompaniments. 436 00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:24,480 Ray, hello, mate. Morning, Gregg, welcome to poppadoms. 437 00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:28,320 These flat discs are the raw uncooked poppadoms, 438 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:31,560 made from a dough of chickpea flour and water. 439 00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:34,640 Am I allowed to touch one of these? There you go, Gregg. 440 00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:38,640 Handmade in India. No-one will believe that they're handmade, you know. 441 00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:43,200 Rolled out. You know what, in this world of 21st-century technology, 442 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,320 the fact that these are handmade I find incredible. 443 00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:52,800 The dough is shaped into small balls which are rolled flat by hand, 444 00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:56,880 then left to dry in the Indian sun before being shipped to the UK. 445 00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:04,680 Now we're going to load them up. Can I load some? Yep. 446 00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:08,920 From this point, robots take over. 447 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:21,240 I love robots! 448 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:23,600 They are magnificent! 449 00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:25,440 How are they picking them up? 450 00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:26,920 They work on air pressure. 451 00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:30,560 Suck them up, lift them, put them down. 452 00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:35,400 The factory uses a staggering 453 00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:39,360 500,000 of these raw poppadoms every day - 454 00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:42,120 more than 130 million a year! 455 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:46,080 Is that it? That's it now. Shut the door. 456 00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:54,400 The raw poppadoms are carried on a conveyor belt into an enormous 457 00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:56,880 five-metre-long fryer. 458 00:30:56,880 --> 00:31:01,480 Inside, they are cooked in 1,300 litres of rapeseed oil 459 00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:03,480 at 170 degrees C. 460 00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:07,080 How long do the poppadoms take to go through there? 461 00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:10,080 Ten seconds from one side to the other. 462 00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:12,000 When I do poppadoms at home, 463 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:14,880 you put them into the oil and they puff right up. 464 00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:17,280 How do they travel through there? Do they just float? 465 00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:19,200 No, they're sandwiched between two belts, 466 00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:22,000 to keep them flat so we can pack them. 467 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:23,960 Is that it? That's it. 468 00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:31,600 Now 30% bigger, the cooked poppadoms fly out of the fryer at a rate of 469 00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:36,160 six per second and have any excess cooking oil removed. 470 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:38,960 We blow air on them to blow the oil away. 471 00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:42,520 What is that glowing-red tunnel of love? 472 00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:44,920 That...is magic. 473 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:48,200 More science fact than magical mystery. 474 00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:52,720 Light sensors in the roof map the position of each poppadom and pass 475 00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:56,320 the information onto the packing robots. 476 00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:58,920 That is like some sort of demented chicken! 477 00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:09,480 These robotic heads suck up the poppadoms using a vacuum that is 478 00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:13,280 just strong enough to lift them without snapping them. 479 00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:16,120 Any they miss are picked up by the next one. 480 00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:18,280 I mean, that is the quickest, that is so fast! 481 00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:19,800 What does it remind you of? 482 00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:24,560 To me, it's a chicken. It's a crazy chicken. It's a crazy chicken, isn't it? It's a crazy chicken. 483 00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:25,840 It really is. 484 00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:29,480 The frantic four pick up 360 poppadoms a minute. 485 00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:39,000 These fragile stacks are loaded into their packets by nimble-fingered 486 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:40,480 factory workers. 487 00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:44,480 Hello. Hello. 488 00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:46,000 I've come here to help you out. 489 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:49,280 We get a stack of eight 490 00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:50,800 from down the line, 491 00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:54,040 you just hold your hand out, receive it off the belt, 492 00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:57,400 transfer it into the... So you've got to do eight at a time? 493 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:00,320 Yes. I can do that. Come on, then, show us. 494 00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:05,560 There you go. I don't have a great track record with hand packing. 495 00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:07,320 Here we go, let's pop it. 496 00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:10,440 Let's dom it. He's popping and domming! 497 00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:12,320 Whoa, whoa, whoa! 498 00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:13,720 This is actually... 499 00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:19,480 You have to work really fast. Wow! Whoa! Hang on a minute! 500 00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:25,240 I think it's time I hand control back to the experts. 501 00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:28,320 I wasn't very good, was I? No. LAUGHTER 502 00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:35,280 They march out of the factory - ready to contribute to the 503 00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:40,720 £3 billion we spend on prepacked foods and ready meals each year. 504 00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:48,120 But rewind a few years and these convenience foods 505 00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:49,800 simply didn't exist. 506 00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:56,440 Spice pastes, curry sauces and ready-made curries stack our 507 00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:58,640 supermarket shelves today. 508 00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:04,320 But, in the 1960s, this shopping basket would have been empty. 509 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:11,400 In 1961, Vesta set out to change all that. 510 00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:13,960 They introduced a new convenience curry, 511 00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:16,560 made with freeze-dried ingredients, 512 00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:19,840 and it came in either beef or vegetable varieties. 513 00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:27,120 Marketed as a taste of the exotic, these quick-cook meals were many 514 00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:30,320 Brits' first experience of Indian food. 515 00:34:35,240 --> 00:34:37,200 Hello! Welcome, come on in. Hello! 516 00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:40,200 But, for British Indians like food writer Roopa Gulati... 517 00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:41,880 Oh, this takes me back. 518 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:45,600 ..they were a confusing culinary experience. 519 00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:48,560 So, when did you eat your first one of these, then? 520 00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:52,080 Well, we weren't allowed to have ready-made curries at home because 521 00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:54,800 my mum, a Punjabi cook, cooked from scratch. 522 00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:59,960 So, everything was garlic, ginger, garam masala, all home ground. 523 00:34:59,960 --> 00:35:04,720 And so she said to me, "Well, these curries are for English people..." RUTH LAUGHS 524 00:35:04,720 --> 00:35:07,480 ..which made me determined to taste one, 525 00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,560 and I had to sneak out to a friend's and eat one, 526 00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:14,800 and... Oh, the disappointment! LAUGHTER 527 00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:18,240 I mean, it tasted like Christmas cake! 528 00:35:18,240 --> 00:35:21,640 It's sweet with apple, it's spiked with turmeric, 529 00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:25,960 there are no chillies. It was like nothing else I had ever tasted. 530 00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:30,960 Time to take Roopa back down memory lane. 531 00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:33,200 That's the sauce. 532 00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:34,680 Presumably that's the rice. 533 00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:41,480 It takes 20 minutes to transform these freeze-dried ingredients into 534 00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:42,760 a hot meal. 535 00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:46,440 So, let's have a go, then. 536 00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:53,600 RUTH LAUGHS 537 00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:57,120 It certainly is different, but that's how things were then. 538 00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:58,720 It was exotic dining. 539 00:35:58,720 --> 00:36:04,080 And the whole idea of eating spices in this way, it was a new idea. 540 00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:07,360 In those days there wasn't the whole thinking of high-street 541 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:09,600 curry houses, they hadn't yet come into the fore - 542 00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:12,480 it was fish and chips when you went out for a takeaway. 543 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:16,760 When did you start to notice that curry was becoming more mainstream? 544 00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:20,160 Well, it sort of started creeping up 545 00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:23,600 on our school dinners. And, OK, it was an Anglicised version, 546 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:27,280 but you see, slowly, things began to change. 547 00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:32,680 It was another 20 years before Indian-inspired ready meals took 548 00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:34,360 their next big step forward. 549 00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:40,680 In 1981, Marks & Spencer launched a range of three chilled curries - 550 00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:43,680 the brainchild of Cathy Chapman. 551 00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:47,200 Were they received as being an authentic Indian experience? 552 00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:50,000 We thought we'd done a good job. RUTH LAUGHS 553 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:53,440 And they sold, and then I started getting telephone calls from a lady... 554 00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:57,360 She thought you weren't getting it right? She said she thought she could help us make them better. 555 00:36:57,360 --> 00:37:00,000 I said, "Right, by all means, 556 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:02,960 "why don't you come in and show us what you think we should be doing?" 557 00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:09,680 It seems the British Asian population were not impressed by the new meals. 558 00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:16,680 The curry crusader on the phone was Kent housewife Shehzad Husain. 559 00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:18,160 Nice to see you. 560 00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:20,560 On the day, I can remember it clearly, 561 00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:23,880 there was Shehzad with two very large wicker baskets full of 562 00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:26,720 delicious home-cooked Indian food. 563 00:37:26,720 --> 00:37:30,320 I was nervous, because walking into this big fantastic building with my 564 00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:33,080 baskets, you know, and I didn't know what I was getting into. 565 00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:35,520 And we just tasted them and we were very honest about... 566 00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:39,760 ..tasted our product but also tasted Shehzad's product, and, erm... 567 00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:42,840 ..yeah, Shehzad's product won out! LAUGHTER 568 00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:49,520 With Shehzad's help, they tweaked their recipes, 569 00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:51,840 adding more heat and fresh spices. 570 00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:58,640 The UK fell in love with the taste of these more traditional dishes, 571 00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:02,040 and sales of the relaunched ready meals rocketed. 572 00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:08,240 This proved to be the turning point for cook-at-home curries, 573 00:38:08,240 --> 00:38:11,360 and now we spend £1 million on them every day. 574 00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:26,560 Our batch of tikka masala sauce has been cooking for 20 minutes. 575 00:38:28,320 --> 00:38:31,120 From the kitchen, it heads to quality control... 576 00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:35,600 ..where it faces a set of rigorous 577 00:38:35,600 --> 00:38:38,880 tests to make sure it's up to scratch. 578 00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:41,360 I can't help feeling a bit nervous. 579 00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:44,720 Ian. Yes. Gregg, nice to meet you. Quality control, right? 580 00:38:44,720 --> 00:38:49,160 Yep. Now, that is a beautiful batch of curry. 581 00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:53,320 OK. Well, I'm hoping it is. It will be. Right, what do we check? 582 00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:55,920 The first thing that we're going to do, we're going to check its 583 00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:58,480 consistency on this consistometer. 584 00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:00,760 A what?! A consistometer. 585 00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:04,280 You're making this stuff up, aren't you? Have you guys all got together to pull my leg? 586 00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:07,840 I had a liquiverter a little while ago. I'm not bright enough to make that up, Gregg. 587 00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:09,880 Somebody else has made it up for us. 588 00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:11,720 Right, so, fill it up first... 589 00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:18,320 Ian's rig tests the viscosity of the sauce by measuring how far it 590 00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:22,640 travels down this ramp in 15 seconds. 591 00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:25,080 Two, one... Flick it. 592 00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:28,560 15 seconds? 593 00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:32,840 This simple idea was first developed in 1938 to test the 594 00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:35,000 thickness of tomato ketchup. 595 00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:37,480 That's its time, so what are we looking at? We're looking at 596 00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:39,640 eight-and-a-half... eight-and-a-quarter. 597 00:39:39,640 --> 00:39:42,960 Yeah, and that's well within spec. So we've got the consistency right? 598 00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:46,680 Yep. What's the next check? The next check that we do is pH. 599 00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:52,840 We use an electronic probe to measure the acidity in the sauce. 600 00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:55,960 Too much acid can ruin the taste. 601 00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:59,480 What we're looking for is a reading of less than 4.1. And you've got it. 602 00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:05,160 The colour check relies on something a little more low-tech. 603 00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:10,200 So, what we're looking for is 152C. 604 00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:16,120 A decorating colour chart, right? It is, it's the best thing for the job. 152C, there. 605 00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:18,920 Good for a curry sauce, not great for a bedroom. 606 00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:21,760 Right, well, that looks pretty bang-on to me, mate. 607 00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:25,080 It does to me, yeah. I'll just grab us both a spoon, Gregg. 608 00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:28,400 Finally, I get to taste the sauce I've been making! 609 00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:34,000 That is creamy without being heavy. There's a slight richness to it. 610 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:37,040 The aftertaste is spice, almost like an itchy pepper. 611 00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:40,200 And you keep that taste with that nice creamy mouthfeel afterwards. 612 00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:42,720 Yeah, you keep the flavour, there's no doubt about it, 613 00:40:42,720 --> 00:40:45,080 you keep the flavour. You know what we're missing? 614 00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:48,920 We're missing a chat about the rugby and a pint of beer. Your round. 615 00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:51,680 THEY LAUGH 616 00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:56,240 With the thumbs-up from quality control, 617 00:40:56,240 --> 00:40:58,600 it's time to get this curry into jars. 618 00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:09,600 My tikka masala sauce arrives at the filling department, 619 00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:11,680 where Kevin Coles is in charge. 620 00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:17,080 Hello, Kev. Hiya, Gregg, how are you going, mate? You all right, mate? Good. Yeah, not bad. 621 00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:21,840 Right, I have followed the making of a curry sauce all the way through. 622 00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:25,720 Yep. Now I'm going to need about 7,000 jars, is that right? 623 00:41:25,720 --> 00:41:27,080 Roughly that, yeah. 624 00:41:29,520 --> 00:41:34,800 The empty jars are blasted with hot air at 40 degrees C as they travel 625 00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:36,320 along the conveyor belt. 626 00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:39,720 This stops them cracking when the hot sauce is squirted in. 627 00:41:39,720 --> 00:41:42,720 Have you any idea how many jars you're going through here in the 628 00:41:42,720 --> 00:41:47,160 course of a day? If we have good runs, anything upwards of 300,000. 629 00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:53,520 These jars are ready to be filled with our batch of sauce, 630 00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:57,040 currently being held in a 1,500 litre-tank 631 00:41:57,040 --> 00:41:58,880 just above the filling machine. 632 00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:06,240 There we are. Sauce finally in jars. 633 00:42:06,240 --> 00:42:11,400 This machine fills at a phenomenal rate, more than four jars a second! 634 00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:21,280 Which means our batch of 7,000 whizz through in just 23 minutes. 635 00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:26,080 Now these jars need lids. 636 00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:37,240 What is that doing? What is it doing? This is a cap hopper, Gregg. 637 00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:42,680 The cap hopper ensures that all the lids are facing the correct way. 638 00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:47,960 Those lids are bouncing around in the case like, like a pinball machine! 639 00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:56,280 The steel lids stick to this white magnetic belt as it rises out of the 640 00:42:56,280 --> 00:43:01,280 hopper below. Those facing outwards are rejected by a blast of air and 641 00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:03,800 dropped back into the hopper for another go. 642 00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:19,200 The lids make their way to meet the full jars of sauce in the 643 00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:21,120 capping machine. 644 00:43:23,880 --> 00:43:27,160 This is where the lids finally get onto a jar of sauce, Gregg. 645 00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:33,440 They are timed to meet at the perfect moment, 646 00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:37,640 when the rim of the lid hooks onto the lip of the jar and drops 647 00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:39,320 into place. 648 00:43:40,320 --> 00:43:44,040 Two rubber belts, one moving slightly faster than the other, 649 00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:45,520 screw each lid down. 650 00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:52,480 There's more goes on behind that steamy door 651 00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:55,120 than the rest... the rest of this process! 652 00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:59,840 Finally, our batch of sauce is sealed in jars. 653 00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:05,360 As curries go, the one I'm making is fairly mild, 654 00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:09,600 but there are some seriously fiery concoctions out there. 655 00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:13,800 Cherry is getting the scientific lowdown on what to drink 656 00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:15,360 to beat the burn. 657 00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:20,400 I'm at the University of Sheffield to put chemist Dr Jo Buckley 658 00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:22,240 in the hot seat. 659 00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:27,160 So, we have to understand the chemistry of what's going on in the 660 00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:29,880 chilli to be able to understand how to relieve the burn. 661 00:44:29,880 --> 00:44:31,360 Don't touch your eyes after this. 662 00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:34,440 Most certainly not. I've made that mistake, it's not a happy day. 663 00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:37,800 You'll see inside that you've got the seeds... 664 00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:41,440 Yes. ..you've got the flesh, and then you've got this sort of membrane bit. 665 00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:44,080 So there's a chemical in there called capsaicin, 666 00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:46,600 and capsaicin is basically the thing that makes it hot. 667 00:44:46,600 --> 00:44:49,880 So, in fact, the seeds are not really the problem. 668 00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:52,680 Not really, that's a common misconception. 669 00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:56,640 But I can only learn so much from looking. 670 00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:59,000 Bon appetit! 671 00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:03,240 I've got to experience the result of capsaicin for myself. 672 00:45:03,240 --> 00:45:07,920 I've got a feeling that this isn't a lovely, mild masala. 673 00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:09,680 THEY LAUGH 674 00:45:12,600 --> 00:45:14,880 Well, it's delicious. Oh, there it is... 675 00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:20,120 That is seriously hot. Does your mouth feel like it's on fire? 676 00:45:20,120 --> 00:45:23,920 It's really, really all over my mouth, up my nose now. 677 00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:26,040 Really intense pain? Really intense. 678 00:45:28,120 --> 00:45:31,320 What is going on, then? So, it's all to do with a certain receptor that 679 00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:36,760 you've got in your mouth, and it's called TRPV1. BOTH: TRPV1... 680 00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:40,000 ..receptors, yes, and these are sort of little temperature sensors, 681 00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:42,480 so if you have a really hot drink or a really hot meal, 682 00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:46,880 those same receptors will fire off to stop you from burning your mouth. 683 00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:52,040 So the capsaicin binds to the TRPV1 receptors and it sends a signal to 684 00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:56,080 your brain that basically perceives that it's a hot sensation. 685 00:45:56,080 --> 00:45:59,320 But in fact there is no fire. It's a false alarm. 686 00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:01,440 It is a totally false signal. 687 00:46:01,440 --> 00:46:05,560 The only way to put out this fire is to wash the capsaicin away from 688 00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:10,120 these receptors. To find out which drink is most effective at beating 689 00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:12,840 the burn, I've enlisted the help of 690 00:46:12,840 --> 00:46:15,960 some willing but unsuspecting volunteers. 691 00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:18,760 We've split them into three groups and we're going to give them a 692 00:46:18,760 --> 00:46:20,560 really hot curry. 693 00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:38,280 I can feel it in my cheeks. Oh, yeah. And my eyes. I'm crying a little bit. 694 00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:41,760 I'm definitely getting the sniffles a bit. It's extreme curry eating. 695 00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:44,520 I've made some poor decisions in Indian restaurants before, 696 00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:46,480 but I think this one tops them all. 697 00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:50,160 I mean, is it enjoyable or is it quite painful? 698 00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:52,400 Erm, a lot of others have said they're enjoying it, 699 00:46:52,400 --> 00:46:54,520 I wouldn't say I'm enjoying it right now. 700 00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:59,040 First, the diners score their discomfort out of ten. 701 00:47:00,520 --> 00:47:03,920 Now we'll test the effect of three different drinks on that 702 00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:05,120 burning sensation. 703 00:47:06,120 --> 00:47:07,760 So, we're going with milk, 704 00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:10,400 we're going with cola, and we're going with beer. 705 00:47:16,280 --> 00:47:19,760 Oh, you can almost see the relief, can't you? 706 00:47:19,760 --> 00:47:23,760 And, after you've had a couple of sips, can I ask you please to rate 707 00:47:23,760 --> 00:47:26,480 your discomfort again, ten being the most, 708 00:47:26,480 --> 00:47:28,000 one being the least? 709 00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:33,160 Their heat reaction verdicts are in, 710 00:47:33,160 --> 00:47:35,480 and Jo's compiled the results of our experiment. 711 00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:39,400 So, let's go for the cola group. 712 00:47:39,400 --> 00:47:44,680 All right. The average of the before and after they took a drink of cola. 713 00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:48,240 It was a sort of moderate success, the cola. Yes. The beer group, 714 00:47:48,240 --> 00:47:51,600 they had a similar amount of discomfort to start with, but the 715 00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:54,560 beer, maybe not quite as good for relieving the burn. 716 00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:58,920 But very, very similar. Really similar. To the final group, 717 00:47:58,920 --> 00:48:01,880 that was our milk group. Now, you can see the before and after, 718 00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:04,880 there's a dramatic effect. What is going on? 719 00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:09,360 How does milk get rid of that heat so quickly? 720 00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:13,760 So, milk has got loads of fat in it, and the fat dissolves the capsaicin, 721 00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:15,520 so it gives you relief. 722 00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:18,160 So, cola and beer both contain a lot of water. 723 00:48:18,160 --> 00:48:21,080 We know that the capsaicin behaves a little bit like an oil. 724 00:48:21,080 --> 00:48:22,880 Oil and water don't mix. 725 00:48:25,120 --> 00:48:28,480 The high water content of these drinks means they'll never fully put 726 00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:30,560 out the fire, although sugar and 727 00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:34,280 alcohol do lessen the effects of capsaicin. 728 00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:37,880 So, the milk really is the thing to go for if you want a winner, winner, 729 00:48:37,880 --> 00:48:39,840 curry dinner. Exactly. 730 00:48:55,480 --> 00:48:58,640 An hour and a half into this curry-cooking journey, 731 00:48:58,640 --> 00:49:02,240 and our tikka masala is now sealed in jars. 732 00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:07,280 To keep the sauce fresh on the supermarket shelves, 733 00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:09,280 it needs to be pasteurised. 734 00:49:11,160 --> 00:49:14,720 Charlie Rowett is looking after this critical process. 735 00:49:14,720 --> 00:49:18,240 Charlie! Gregg, how are you? All right, mate? 736 00:49:18,240 --> 00:49:21,760 You seem to have them in a dishwasher. Yep, and that's basically what it is. 737 00:49:21,760 --> 00:49:24,200 This is what we call a pasteuriser. 738 00:49:24,200 --> 00:49:27,880 So, this is giving your jars a thermal process. 739 00:49:27,880 --> 00:49:29,440 A thermal process. 740 00:49:29,440 --> 00:49:32,680 Yes. Whoa, hang on a minute, this is massive! 741 00:49:34,080 --> 00:49:36,960 This whole pasteuriser fits 30,000 jars in it. 742 00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:47,120 On their two-hour shuffle through the pasteuriser, 743 00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:51,760 hot water heats the jars to 97.5 degrees C, 744 00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:53,800 killing any bacteria in the sauce... 745 00:49:59,640 --> 00:50:02,880 ..and giving it a shelf life of 18 months. 746 00:50:05,160 --> 00:50:07,520 But the heat isn't just preserving the sauce. 747 00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:11,960 But you must be cooking it. Yeah. 748 00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:15,640 So, when it went in the kettle before, that wasn't cooking it? 749 00:50:15,640 --> 00:50:17,560 Not quite there. This...? 750 00:50:17,560 --> 00:50:19,120 This is a finishing job. 751 00:50:20,160 --> 00:50:23,680 This mega, metal thing? 752 00:50:23,680 --> 00:50:25,320 Yep. That's cooking it? 753 00:50:25,320 --> 00:50:29,760 Yes. I've heard of boil-in-the-bag, but cook-in-the-jar? 754 00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:32,040 It's a new one on me. 755 00:50:32,040 --> 00:50:34,640 Can I taste one? Yeah. 756 00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:38,480 I want to see if this double whammy of cooking has changed the taste of 757 00:50:38,480 --> 00:50:39,760 the sauce. 758 00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:48,680 That's a much smoother product than when I did the quality control. 759 00:50:48,680 --> 00:50:51,800 That's creamier as well. Yeah. It's still got the spice, 760 00:50:51,800 --> 00:50:55,160 it's almost as if its texture is different. Yeah. 761 00:50:55,160 --> 00:50:56,480 Well done. 762 00:50:58,960 --> 00:51:03,440 The cooled, and now fully cooked, jars of sauce are blow-dried, ready 763 00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:05,080 for labelling. 764 00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:16,400 Inside the labelling machine, a foam pad applies glue to the jars. 765 00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:20,920 Labels are stuck on... 766 00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:27,400 ..and brushes gently flatten them down. 767 00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:32,040 Does this run on like this all day? 768 00:51:32,040 --> 00:51:34,760 Yeah, it just happily carries on without stopping. 769 00:51:39,360 --> 00:51:43,280 We've made enough curry sauce for 25,000 people, 770 00:51:43,280 --> 00:51:45,200 and if they're anything like me, 771 00:51:45,200 --> 00:51:47,120 they're going to want all the extras. 772 00:51:47,120 --> 00:51:49,800 Come on, Cherry, time for you to do your bit. 773 00:51:54,640 --> 00:51:56,160 For many of us, 774 00:51:56,160 --> 00:52:00,760 these spicy little parcels are the perfect accompaniment to a curry. 775 00:52:01,800 --> 00:52:03,680 But how are they made? 776 00:52:07,320 --> 00:52:11,720 I've come to the Farsan factory in Leicester - a small family firm that 777 00:52:11,720 --> 00:52:18,080 supplies bhajis, pakoras and samosas to 190 takeaways and bakeries. 778 00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:24,200 Operations manager Nicki Patel is letting me in on the secrets of 779 00:52:24,200 --> 00:52:25,920 Indian snacks. 780 00:52:25,920 --> 00:52:28,160 How many samosas do you make a day? 781 00:52:28,160 --> 00:52:31,520 We can make about 10,000-12,000 samosas a day. 782 00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:35,920 That sounds like an extraordinary number. Yeah, and it's all handmade. 783 00:52:35,920 --> 00:52:38,280 There's not that many people here, and it's all handmade? 784 00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:41,320 Yeah, that's correct. 785 00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:45,360 The classic Southern Indian samosa is vegetarian. 786 00:52:45,360 --> 00:52:47,640 Its main ingredient is potato. 787 00:52:47,640 --> 00:52:51,280 I hate peeling potatoes, it takes forever. 788 00:52:51,280 --> 00:52:55,080 Don't worry, we've got this machine to peel it for us. Is this a peeling machine? 789 00:52:55,080 --> 00:52:59,160 Yes, it's got an abrasive material which removes the skin off the 790 00:52:59,160 --> 00:53:01,880 potatoes. A potato sander. 791 00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:03,640 Yeah. It kind of rubs the skin off. 792 00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:09,560 How many samosas will that make? 793 00:53:09,560 --> 00:53:11,240 Around 1,000. 794 00:53:14,360 --> 00:53:16,000 Woohoo! 795 00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:21,480 That is astoundingly fast! Everyone should have one of these! 796 00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:26,920 Oh, my God, a potato waterfall! 797 00:53:26,920 --> 00:53:31,760 25kg of potatoes, peeled to perfection... 798 00:53:31,760 --> 00:53:34,120 ..in 40 seconds. 799 00:53:34,120 --> 00:53:37,880 Oh, wait, there's one more. There it goes. Aww! 800 00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:41,960 They get through well over 1,000 potatoes a day, 801 00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:45,600 and they all have to be diced into one-centimetre cubes. 802 00:53:45,600 --> 00:53:46,640 Geronimo! 803 00:53:49,040 --> 00:53:51,560 They're steamed in an oven for around 20 minutes, 804 00:53:51,560 --> 00:53:54,000 so they're soft but still hold their shape. 805 00:53:58,200 --> 00:53:59,880 While the potatoes are cooking, 806 00:53:59,880 --> 00:54:04,640 a traditional Indian kadhi is used to hand-fry the carrots and peas. 807 00:54:04,640 --> 00:54:08,080 So now we're going to add the spices in. Ooh, spice time! 808 00:54:09,360 --> 00:54:12,360 'This mix is a family recipe...' 809 00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:14,080 Oh, look at that! 810 00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:16,320 '..dating back three generations.' 811 00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:21,160 Now we're going to add the peas and carrot mix into the potatoes. 812 00:54:21,160 --> 00:54:24,280 These oven gloves are everything I need and want in life. 813 00:54:24,280 --> 00:54:26,440 THEY LAUGH 814 00:54:26,440 --> 00:54:29,040 Three, two, one... Wahey! 815 00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:33,040 That is a match made in heaven. 816 00:54:34,000 --> 00:54:37,400 I'm really having to be very disciplined not to take a massive bite. 817 00:54:40,520 --> 00:54:44,040 The last ingredient is 4kg of raw onion. 818 00:54:44,040 --> 00:54:47,640 So now we just mix it with our hands, so each samosa has each 819 00:54:47,640 --> 00:54:50,760 vegetable in it. Lovely. So now the filling's ready. 820 00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:58,680 Finally, it's wrapped up in specially-cut filo pastry strips. 821 00:54:58,680 --> 00:55:03,320 Shabana has ten years of lightning-fast samosa-shaping experience. 822 00:55:04,920 --> 00:55:09,000 Are you ready to give me a masterclass... Yeah. ..on samosa-building? 823 00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:13,120 I have done finger lunges, I'm warmed up, I'm ready to roll. 824 00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:17,400 Cross it. Yeah. Lift with your left. 825 00:55:17,400 --> 00:55:19,840 Lift with left. And turning it. 826 00:55:19,840 --> 00:55:23,800 Turn it. Right hand fold it. Right hand fold it, 827 00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:26,280 like that. Like that. Little pocket. 828 00:55:26,280 --> 00:55:28,920 And then... Put one spoon... 829 00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:32,800 Ugh! Ugh! LAUGHTER 830 00:55:32,800 --> 00:55:36,760 Just fold it like... Fold it like... 831 00:55:36,760 --> 00:55:39,200 CHERRY GASPS 832 00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:42,240 Oof! Boom! 833 00:55:42,240 --> 00:55:45,000 Yeah. Is that edible? It's all right. It's fine. 834 00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:48,560 It's a bit baggy, isn't it? How many do you make in a day? 835 00:55:48,560 --> 00:55:52,240 2,000. 2,000 samosas?! Yeah. 836 00:55:52,240 --> 00:55:54,600 And you've worked here for ten years? Yeah. 837 00:55:54,600 --> 00:55:58,600 Which means that you've made over six million samosas. 838 00:55:58,600 --> 00:56:00,360 Yeah, I've not counted it. 839 00:56:04,720 --> 00:56:07,400 It may not be as beautiful as the other ones, 840 00:56:07,400 --> 00:56:10,840 but I am so proud of that. 841 00:56:11,920 --> 00:56:13,760 Even holds together! 842 00:56:19,760 --> 00:56:21,960 The samosas are dispatched frozen, 843 00:56:21,960 --> 00:56:26,120 ready to be fried and served alongside your favourite curry. 844 00:56:36,000 --> 00:56:40,400 Just three hours and 20 minutes since I saw 26 tonnes of tomato 845 00:56:40,400 --> 00:56:42,520 puree being unloaded... 846 00:56:44,320 --> 00:56:47,760 ..our curry sauce is packed and wrapped in an elaborate 847 00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:49,960 Bollywood-style dance number. 848 00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:53,400 UPBEAT INDIAN MUSIC PLAYS 849 00:56:59,840 --> 00:57:03,120 From here, it heads to the distribution centre. 850 00:57:03,120 --> 00:57:05,040 Mark Dunning looks after shipping. 851 00:57:07,240 --> 00:57:09,680 So, that's it, finished pallets, right? 852 00:57:09,680 --> 00:57:12,600 Yes. How many jars on a pallet? 853 00:57:12,600 --> 00:57:14,760 1,554. GREGG CHUCKLES 854 00:57:14,760 --> 00:57:18,880 OK, how many pallets to a truck? 24 pallets to each truck. 855 00:57:18,880 --> 00:57:22,960 Do you know how many jars that makes on a truck? 37,296. 856 00:57:22,960 --> 00:57:25,160 Brilliant. Brilliant! I don't suppose... 857 00:57:25,160 --> 00:57:26,880 How many people would that feed? 858 00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:28,920 152,000 people. 859 00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:30,320 Amazing. 860 00:57:31,880 --> 00:57:37,400 There we go. Pallet on a truck, truck full of tikka masala sauce. 861 00:57:40,920 --> 00:57:45,440 From here, this curry sauce heads to supermarket shelves all over the UK 862 00:57:45,440 --> 00:57:51,320 and Europe, but it also has fans as far afield as Canada and Australia. 863 00:57:54,840 --> 00:57:58,160 He's got some sauce, hasn't he? He's got a lot of sauce. 864 00:57:58,160 --> 00:57:59,920 Saucy! 865 00:58:05,400 --> 00:58:07,680 You know, I like to make a curry at home, 866 00:58:07,680 --> 00:58:09,760 and I was delighted to find that, here, 867 00:58:09,760 --> 00:58:12,400 they use a lot of the same ingredients as I do, 868 00:58:12,400 --> 00:58:14,880 but they make it in a very, very different way. 869 00:58:14,880 --> 00:58:18,800 But, then, I suppose I've never tried to make curry for 25,000 870 00:58:18,800 --> 00:58:23,280 people before. And tikka masala - a dish that I've always considered to 871 00:58:23,280 --> 00:58:26,960 be Indian - turns out to be a very British invention - 872 00:58:26,960 --> 00:58:29,600 this one, made here in Worksop.