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Drink

Tamarind and Papaya

A sweet, fruit-based drink made from tamarind, papaya, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Tamarind and papaya share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Tamarind and Papaya

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook the shelled tamarinds in a little water until soft.

  2. Strain the pulp through a colander.

  3. Add the tamarind pulp, papaya pulp, and sugar to a pot.

  4. Cook for 30 to 45 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Tamarind + papayatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  2. Tamarind + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Papaya + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together126 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tamarinds
Provides the tart, acidic flavor that balances the sweetness of the drink.
Papaya pulp
Supplies the body, mild sweetness and fruity aroma of the drink.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tamarind's sourness.

Swap the papaya

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tamarind, sugar):

  1. Mangofits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Papayathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tamarind, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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