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Has anyone used tamarind as a source of tartaric acid?
I always have a block of tamarind in my store cupboard as an ingredient for asian cooking- its dirt cheap from Chinese supermarkets (for example, a 400g block of tamarind costs 79p here) and imparts a really healthy sharp, clean acidity in your cooking.
When I use it for cooking, I cut off a few slivers from the pressed block- maybe equivilant to a desert spoon or tablespoon of pressed tamarind pulp, then pour boiling water over it and let it steep prior to draining it and using the 'tea'.
Last night, I started wondering what the acid in tamarind was.
It turns out it's a very good source of tartaric acid, with about 10% by pulp weight being tartaric acid. Small amounts of malic acid also exist, with very little else (no ascorbic, trace oxalic)
The tamarind pod also contains "pectin hydrolyzing enzymes"
The tea which I make has very little smell or taste other than a sharp acidity.
If it has any smell at all, its a little 'earthy' or 'dusty'.
The brown colour is the only thing that concerns me- this is due to the presence of free amino acids and reducing sugars (what are reducing sugars?)
I'm interested by the prospects offered by tamarind and may give it a go on a red wine this autumn. It'd be quite easy to make up a tea, titrate it, then add the desired volume of tea.
Has anyone got any experience of it?
(attached jpegs are texts regarding tamarind composition taken from a google-book search. The book was called "Handbook of Fruit Science and Technology: production, compostion, storage and processing; Salunkhe & Kadam, 1996)
I always have a block of tamarind in my store cupboard as an ingredient for asian cooking- its dirt cheap from Chinese supermarkets (for example, a 400g block of tamarind costs 79p here) and imparts a really healthy sharp, clean acidity in your cooking.
When I use it for cooking, I cut off a few slivers from the pressed block- maybe equivilant to a desert spoon or tablespoon of pressed tamarind pulp, then pour boiling water over it and let it steep prior to draining it and using the 'tea'.
Last night, I started wondering what the acid in tamarind was.
It turns out it's a very good source of tartaric acid, with about 10% by pulp weight being tartaric acid. Small amounts of malic acid also exist, with very little else (no ascorbic, trace oxalic)
The tamarind pod also contains "pectin hydrolyzing enzymes"
The tea which I make has very little smell or taste other than a sharp acidity.
If it has any smell at all, its a little 'earthy' or 'dusty'.
The brown colour is the only thing that concerns me- this is due to the presence of free amino acids and reducing sugars (what are reducing sugars?)
I'm interested by the prospects offered by tamarind and may give it a go on a red wine this autumn. It'd be quite easy to make up a tea, titrate it, then add the desired volume of tea.
Has anyone got any experience of it?
(attached jpegs are texts regarding tamarind composition taken from a google-book search. The book was called "Handbook of Fruit Science and Technology: production, compostion, storage and processing; Salunkhe & Kadam, 1996)