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Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

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Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#161

Post by maxxxxx »

neya wrote: post #11

How is this any different from MTR's line of products?[1] And given that MTR's products cost just $2.50 per pack where I currently live, $24 isn't exactly cheap. I haven't tasted your product, but I have tasted the MTR ones and they seem pretty authentic. And MTR being a very old, traditional brand, it's as authentic as it gets. Would love to hear about your differentiation strategy. [1] https://www.mtrfoods.com/prod…

MTR definitely has a different taste than what you get when you use fresh spices. No idea how the OP's products taste.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#162

Post by maxxxxx »

praneshp wrote: post #50
neya wrote: post #11

How is this any different from MTR's line of products?[1] And given that MTR's products cost just $2.50 per pack where I currently live, $24 isn't exactly cheap. I haven't tasted your product, but I have tasted the MTR ones and they seem pretty authentic. And MTR being a very old, traditional brand, it's as authentic as it gets. Would love to hear about your differentiation strategy. [1] https://www.mtrfoods.com/prod…

Not sure how OP's product is different, but MTR's food is not good at all. Even assuming that a $2.50 pack is enough for you (I find that I need two at most times for my regular hunger), it's not good to eat at all. I usually reserve it for national park trips only (the convenience of popping the pack into boiling water or into the microwave for 2 mins is unbeatable). As far as authenticity goes, most of their stuff…

"national park trips only "

I do that too! MTR and the Trader Joe's Indian dishes are my camping food. Definitely no comparison to fresh food.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#163

Post by vram22 »

0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #153
vram22 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw Mitra's reply downthread, but adding my 2c as an Indian: Buttermilk is commonly drunk with meals in India (both North and South, although lassi is very popular in the North too), and also separately as a refresher, more so in summer, often lightly spiced with cumin, hing (asafoetida), etc. and sometimes with a few green chillies in it (for the brave - heh:), and is considered a soothing drink, and also healthy…

Is the buttermilk made from the leftovers of churning butter or is it milk that they grow cultures in?

Interesting question. Answer: The former. However, there is another product loosely called buttermilk by some, here. It is just curd (Indian term for yoghurt) diluted with water and maybe stirred or whisked a bit to mix up the water well with the curd. If you can't get the former, you can easily make this with curd you have at home. The real buttermilk is usually salted slightly. The one made from curd can be had either salty or sweet by adding sugar.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#165

Post by Symbiote »

mitraraman wrote: post #125
willmacdonald wrote: post #116

Have you looked into Pataks? This company is HUGE in UK. They provide jars with all the ingredients mixed. You need to add an onion, can of tomatoes and some chicken/beef. Read their story here: https://www.pataks.co.uk/our-story

Super interesting, thank you!

I used to use these sauces a lot, as a student in the UK and for a few years after.

There's a scale:

1. Prepare everything from scratch.

For anything that isn't fairly simple, this is reserved for special occasions.

2. Use pre-prepared sauces like Patak's (there are also cheaper ones)

This still feels like "cooking", and scales up nicely to multiple hungry students without costing much more.

3. Microwave a chilled ready-meal [2]

There's a big price range for this, say £1-6 per portion. The cheap ones aren't very nice, and the expensive ones were too expensive as students, but were fine if I felt lazy once I had a job.

4. Order take-away.

I couldn't afford this.

5. Pour boiling water over instant noodles.

No-one admits to doing this sober.

[2] https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/chilled-/meal...

[N] There are suppliers in the USA: https://www.pataksusa.com/find-pataks

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#166

Post by diiaann »

hpagey wrote: post #122

I was very excited to see this but after looking at the nutrition details, I was dismayed. Upma 1 serving has 660 mg of sodium. Khichdi has 1760 mg of sodium. The daily requirement is 2300 mg of Sodium and if you are hyper tensive the requirements are lesser. Is there a reason it has such a high sodium content? The pricing also seems high to me. I think your should rethink pricing. For staple items like khichdi, upma…

Seems like a perfectly fine amount of sodium to me. "An estimated sodium intake between 3 g per day and 6 g per day was associated with a lower risk of death and cardiovascular events than either a higher or lower estimated level of sodium intake." https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1311889

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#167

Post by Ar-Curunir »

neya wrote: post #11

How is this any different from MTR's line of products?[1] And given that MTR's products cost just $2.50 per pack where I currently live, $24 isn't exactly cheap. I haven't tasted your product, but I have tasted the MTR ones and they seem pretty authentic. And MTR being a very old, traditional brand, it's as authentic as it gets. Would love to hear about your differentiation strategy. [1] https://www.mtrfoods.com/prod…

The difference is that the MTR stuff actually tastes horrible and nothing like actual, regular, everyday Indian food.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#168

Post by astura »

mitraraman wrote: post #90
neya wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> MTR provides just the spices, you have to bring everything else. This includes vegetables/meat, seasoning, additional spices, oil/salt, etc. Our products include all of this so that the only ingredient you add is water which makes it much more convenient. Sorry, this is not accurate. If I buy an MTR Sambhar rice, or Paneer masala, everything is included. I just need to heat it and eat it. > Our packets are 100% fre…

Appreciate the responses! - The microwaveable complete meals are definitely more similar to our products, but those are once again shelf-stable and lack in taste and nutrition. We will be doing a live comparison of our Chana Masala vs. the MTR Chana Masala to show how different it is in amount of product, look, smell, taste and nutrition. - The oil that they include is definitely a type of preservative, and they use…

Since when does vacuum sealing "[dry] up the product to remove the nutritional value?" I don't believe it does either.

Also from Wikipedia retort packaging seems much more similar to canning than vacuum sealing.

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#169

Post by southerndrift »

sjg007 wrote: post #120
mitraraman wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your use case for TastyBit makes total sense. We're hoping to be a go-to option for a normal meal at home when you don't want to spend the time/money/energy on making a meal from scratch. We are starting with Indian food but will hopefully be expanding to different cuisines, too!

Maybe you could offer low(er) sodium versions. I find 20% daily sodium intake is too much for a dish.

Do you eat more than 5 dishes per day? How are you going to get your daily sodium dose?

Re: Launch HN: The Buttermilk Company (YC S18) – Homemade Indian Food in 5 Minutes

#170

Post by bogomipz »

mitraraman wrote: post #99
staunch wrote: post #83

I checked just a few items and saw 910mg, 1220mg, 1430mg, and 1760mg of sodium per serving! That's an incredibly high amount of sodium. It would probably be unhealthy for most people to eat one per day, let alone 2-3. Maybe you can do something about lowering the sodium levels, but until then I don't think "healthy" is a fair word to use.

Yes definitely. We are actively working on creating low-sodium options of these dishes. Unfortunately, the sodium comes from the traditional Indian spices used in each dish so it's an intricate process to adjust the levels and keep the same quality and taste.

>"The sodium comes from the traditional Indian spices used in each dish so it's an intricate process to adjust the levels and keep the same quality and taste."

The majority of Indian spices are mostly single element spices - cumin, coriander, fennel, fenugreek, garlic etc.

Even Garam Masala probably the most widely used multi-spice doesn't contain any salt.

Could you elaborate on which "traditional" Indian spices have salt in them?

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