And a tasty dessert topping!
Posted on 12/06/2023 12:11:34 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Tamarind might sound — and taste — unfamiliar to many, but one influential company known for its spices and seasonings predicts it’s going to have a breakthrough year.
McCormick & Company, the top-selling maker of seasonings and spices, has named tamarind as its 2024 “Flavor of the Year.” The report, released yearly since 2000, identifies trending spices and seasonings about to hit restaurant menus or in cookbooks and perhaps become the new pumpkin spice.
Tamarind comes from a tree that commonly grows throughout Africa, Mexico, Asia and India, and produces pods containing the acidic and tangy-sweet flavor that can be added to a number of foods such potato chips, ice cream and even in coffee.
McCormick deploys a team of about 50 people, such as chefs and food technologists, around the world to seek out trending flavors, with Executive Chef Hadar Cohen Aviram taking charge to select the flavor of the year.
Tamarind was chosen because its flavor profile “brings out all of what we saw for this year,” noting three trends it has identified like the growth of tangy and sour foods; dishes McCormick calls “thoughtfully borrowed,” which are modernized versions of regional foods, and “new-stalgic” foods that are over-the-top takes of childhood favorites (think: mozzarella sticks with caviar.)
“All of those trends that we saw this year, we see them projected through this one flavor,” she said.
Choosing tamarind was a 9-month process using McCormick’s team, which visits various countries from South Africa to China and even Poland, examines restaurant menus, interviews experts and uses data “to see what’s going on in these places,” Aviram said.
“We’re not inventing anything new,” she added, noting that tamarind has been around for thousands of years and has been a popular ingredient for a while on menus in Asia and Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at channel3000.com ...
And a tasty dessert topping!
I lived around tamarind trees in Jamaica. We used the sticky stuff inside the pods to make some nice candy, tamarind rum balls. They were good with or without rum. Kinda sweet (only because of the added sugar) and kinda tangy. I tasted the drink the made out of tamarind but I didn’t appreciate it so much. I much preferred soursop or sorrel drink, or countless other tropical treats.
I can’t imagine how you make a stable spice out of that sticky stuff, or how authentic it would be, but I’m game for trying it.
“The pulp is also used in traditional medicine and as a METAL POLISH...”
‘It’s a floor cleaner! It’s a dessert topping! Wait! It’s BOTH?”
*SNORT*
It’s like a sour raisin-y taste and texture. It’s not horrible but I’m not terribly fond of it personally
citric acid is a great brass polish, and good for cleaning corroded contacts ... plus lots of other stuff ... oh yeah, and good for adding acidity during cooking ...
Tamarind Glazed Wings----sidechef.com video.
I have 18 years of Retail Management/Sales under my belt. A sucker IS born every minute. ;)
I knew you’d save the day! I was thinking, ‘What this thread needs is some recipes!’ :)
Yup.......gotta have a recipe.
If you make a strong Mace milkshake you’ll get quite a buzz.
It’s also a floor wax.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
No, it’s a dessert topping!
LOL! Because management incorrectly bet the flavor would "dominate menus" in 2023!
I have noticed it with some surprise slowly making its way , in various forms , in most supermarkets/specialty stores I patronize. It’s good stuff! One of our great longed-for treats from childhood, was a drink we just called “tamarindo”, which was available as a concentrated syrup which was as i remember, diluted with some water and ice cubes and served with a slice of lemon. For me, it beat lemonade by a mile. I grew up in a small town 30 mi. north of Chicago full of Italian restaurants and bars.
We are so into food, I always love to read these nuts and bolts reports on food trends, which come in waves every few years and are sometimes “pushed” on to the public, and sometimes worth it, sometimes not, but it’s all “trending”, to use a term that wasn’t even around way back when I first noticed the first time in my lifetime: oat bran and wheat germ (these were the staples of “health-food stores”, not to big anymore ..) then, in no particular order there was sun-dried tomatoes, kale (a late arrival that requires it acolytes to “fight for it”) , arugula (always worthy and welcome) ,Sriracha ( a great hot sauce now making a comeback after its early dominance, which saw it threatened by a resurgence of “all things hot sauce”) oh God the list of food trends is endless, and I have other things to do today.
Bruce is so stunning now!! (barf)
Bookmark
I am into spices also, and have been very appreciative in finding that both GOYA (one of the great food producers) and BADIA are offering just about everything you could need, at MUCH more affordable prices and sensible packaging ( smaller quantities in plastic packages) A great alternative, and the quality is there, and the price is right, EVEN IF they don’t offer everything McCormick or the other “high-priced spreads” do.
Now, I mostly buy my spices in bulk and organic or organic store brands. But, this season, I did purchase McCormick’s Pumpkin Pie spice.
Tamarind : makes All purpose woke wax. Even shines armor for violent protests.
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