😮 The Best and Worst Curry Paste
A blind taste test to finally know for sure.
Sawaddee Ka 🙏🏼
“Pai, what is the best brand of Thai curry paste?” This is one of the most frequently asked questions in the history of Hot Thai Kitchen. And I have danced around the answer, giving recommendations but non-definitive answers like, “Well, I usually use X, but Y and Z are also fine to use.”
This is because without having tasted them side by side, I didn’t actually KNOW which was the best.
So in this video, I conducted a blind taste test of curry sauces made from 5 commonly available brands of Thai red curry paste. Then I took the top and the bottom picks and made the best curries I could with them, to find out whether the worst could be made as good with enough tinkering.
Doing this test was extremely interesting for me - everything from how the pastes look, behave in the pot, and taste. Even though I have used all of these pastes at some point in my career, to taste them side by side was truly fascinating.
I think that the main takeaway discussed at the end of the video is absolutely crucial for everyone who cooks with store bought curry pastes.
this was very cool to watch! years ago when i first started cooking, i used thai kitchen because that's what i had access to. but i noticed a.) the jar says "spicy" and b.) i think the recommended usage amount is like two tablespoons or something, and even back then i would use the entire jar and still find it totally mild and i would end up doctoring it quite a bit. the best thing i made with the thai kitchen paste was actually not curry but i mixed with ground beef to make burgers, and then mixed thai basil and cabbage (& seasonings of course) to make a slaw to go on top. those were pretty good.
i switched to maesri which i have to order on amazon and have been using that, but again, i use the entire can. but it is MUCH better. (i really like the green paste especially, but i found out the hard way that with that one i definitely DON'T need to use the whole can to get a punch of flavor, lol! we were sweating that night for sure.) however now after watching your video i will seek out one of the others to try! thanks!
Great experiment and explanation! When I cook Thai food, green curry is usually my base curry paste. I wonder if different households have different "default" curry pastes.