Why it works: Tamarind and sugar work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 362 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Tamarind Drink
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the tamarind
Shell the tamarind and cover it with water.
Let it soak for several hours.
Remove the water from the tamarinds.
Make the drink
Dilute with fresh water.
Sweeten to taste.
Place the shelled tamarinds in a 2‑quart pitcher filled with water. Stir well.
Add sugar to taste.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Tamarind + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together362 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tamarinds
- Supplies the tart, sour flavour that gives the drink its character.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the drink to balance the tartness of the tamarind.
The step that matters
Let it soak for several hours. Soaking softens the pulp so its flavour and acidity dissolve into the water. A short soak leaves the drink weak and under-flavoured.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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