Tamarind

Tamarind is the brown pod pulp of Tamarindus indica, a long-lived leguminous tree of the Fabaceae family, and one of the few sour agents on the planet whose acidity comes not from citric but from tartaric acid, the same acid as grape. The pod is a curved brown shell, 8 to 15 centimetres long, containing three to ten glossy black seeds embedded in a sticky fibrous paste that runs 12 to 18 percent tartaric acid, 20 to 40 percent sugars and 2 to 3 percent pectin; that sugar-to-acid ratio is the reason tamarind reads not as sharp like lemon but as deep, raisin-like and almost worcestershire. India is both the largest producer and the largest consumer, with Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu accounting for the bulk of the crop; Thailand specialises in the sweet dessert variety from Phetchabun province, eaten fresh like a date; Mexico, concentrated in Colima, Jalisco and Guerrero, supplies the domestic agua de tamarindo and candy market and the Mexican diaspora in the United States. The Caribbean, Sudan, Senegal and the Philippines fill the rest. The spice enters South Indian sambar, rasam and puli kuzhambu, Thai pad thai, tom yum and massaman, Indonesian sayur asem, Mexican agua fresca and pulparindo candy, Jamaican chutney, Sudanese aradeib, Filipino sinigang, and, notoriously, the British HP and Worcestershire sauces.