Why it works: Tamarind and cinnamon share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98 recipes. Both carry cinnamyl acetate, which smells sweet aromatic, cinnamon. The science ↓
Red Tamarind Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tamarind
Clean the tamarind pods and remove the seeds.
Soak the pods in cold water for 2 hours.
Make the jam
Make a syrup by dissolving the sugar in 1½ cups of water.
Add the tamarind and cinnamon to the syrup.
Boil for 10 minutes over high heat.
Remove the tamarind from the syrup and continue boiling the syrup until thick.
Return the tamarind to the syrup and boil slowly for 15 minutes.
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 + cinnamontop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together98 recipes
Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Tamarind + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together362 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tamarind
- Provides the tart, fruity acidity that gives the jam its flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, as it dissolves and thickens, helps give the syrup its body.
The step that matters
Continue boiling the syrup until thick. Once the tamarind is removed, the syrup must reduce on its own to reach jam consistency. Sugar syrup thickens as water evaporates and concentrates, so stopping too early leaves the jam runny.
Swap the tamarind
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Tamarindthe original
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon. 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.
You might also like
Cinnamon Rolls71 recipes
Cinnamon Cake42 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.