Name: Tamarind Drink
Ingredients: 10 to 12 shelled tamarinds; 2 quarts water; sugar to taste

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

10 to 12 shelled tamarinds
2 quarts water
sugar to taste

Directions

Shell the tamarinds and place them in a 2‑quart pitcher filled with water.
Stir well and add sugar to taste.
Let the mixture sit for a few hours before serving.

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.

Tamarind + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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: Provide the sour, fruity flavor that gives the drink its character and acidity.
Sugar: Balances the tamarind's tartness with sweetness, adjusted to taste.

“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.