A FRAGRANT mix of Indian spices will keep the pot boiling for charity in a world record attempt by students in Ipswich next month. Twenty catering pupils from Suffolk College will try to make the largest curry in history by chopping vegetables for the three and a half tonne dish.

A SCENT of Indian spices will keep the pot boiling for charity in a world record attempt by students in Ipswich next month.

Twenty catering pupils from Suffolk College will try to make the largest curry in history by chopping vegetables for the three and a half tonne dish.

Cooking will start at 7am on June 14 and it will take more than four hours just to boil all the water needed for the cooking.

Gas company Oxygen is sponsoring the event, which will take place on June 14 at the college, and 30 cylinders of gas will be used.

The 7ft tall and 6ft wide cooking vessel has been made by Hunwick engineering from Halstead.

Sanayor Miah who will be making the record attempt runs an Indian cookery class at the college.

He said: "I am really looking forward to the challenge because I used to hold the record but it was recently beaten by a 2.5 tonne curry. The idea is for me to win the title back.

"Once the curry has been made we are going to sell portions of it for £1. There should be around 10,000 portions to sell. The profits made from this will be given to the Ipswich town mayor's charities."

The charities that will benefit from the event will be the Ipswich Wildlife Group, East Anglia children's hospices and the Ipswich branch of Amnesty International.

Tracey Bailey, promotions manager for the college, said: "It will be such a great task for the students to be involved in, although I am not sure I would want to be the student who has to chop 10 bags of onions.

"We are all looking forward to the big day and taking part in the creation of the world's largest curry. "To think it will take the students 40 steps just to reach the top of the pot is amazing."

Dean McGivern, director of Hunwick Engineering, said: "This is certainly the first time the company has made a cooking vessel of this size since I have been here and I have worked here for 20 years. It's the biggest saucepan I have seen.

"It will have cost £1,100 to make and taken the team a week to make."

Five more wacky cooking records

n The largest dog biscuit measured 2.35m (7.7ft) long, 57cm (1.9ft) wide and 2.54cm (1 inch) thick. It was made in Minnesota, USA, on August 11, 1999.

N The most string of noodles made from one piece of dough was made by Simon Sang Koon Sung, of Singapore on July 31, 1994. He made 8,192 noodle strings in 59.29 seconds.

N On July 23, 1998 Lender's Bagels in Illinois, USA, made a blueberry bagel that was 34.9cm (13.75 inches) high, had a diameter of 149.86cm (59 inches) and weighed a record 323.86kg (714lb).

N A Frango mint chocolates box was made weighing 1,463 (3,226lb) and was created by Marshall Field's of Chicago, USA, on November 14, 2002. The box measured 203cm wide, 48cm deep and contained 90,090 calories.

N The largest fruit cake was a 118 square metre peach shortcake measuring 143.86m by 0.85m was made by the Greater Atlanta Chapter of the American Culinary Federation at the 1999 hunger walk in Atlanta, USA, on May 16, 1999.

Source: Guinness World Records 2004.