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Tamarind Water
Put a teaspoonful of preserved tamarinds into a glass of ice-cold water. Stir well and serve.
A two-ingredient cooler that depends entirely on what you mean by "preserved tamarinds." Get that right and the rest takes a minute.
- Preserved tamarindsThe book most likely means tamarind pulp packed in sugar syrup, sold in jars and a common item on the sickroom shelf. The nearest modern equivalents are wet seedless tamarind pulp or tamarind concentrate; both are sour rather than sweet, so a teaspoon of concentrate in a glass of water will need sugar or honey to match the intent.
- Seeds and fibreBlock tamarind still contains hard seeds and stringy fibre. Soak it in a little warm water, work it with your fingers, then press through a sieve before it goes anywhere near a drinking glass.
- It will not simply dissolveStirring a spoonful of pulp into ice water leaves streaks and lumps. Slake the tamarind with a tablespoon or two of warm water first, stir to a smooth thin syrup, then top up with cold water and ice.
- StrengthThe recipe does not specify a glass size; assume something in the region of 8 fl oz. With concentrate, start at half a teaspoon per glass, taste, and build up; commercial pastes are more concentrated than jarred sweetened tamarind was.
- YieldOne glass, as written. It scales to a pitcher without trouble.
- A note on the gentle laxative reputationTamarind was given to invalids partly for that effect. A teaspoon in a glass is mild, but a pitcher drunk through an afternoon is a different proposition.
Tamarind was one of the standard sickroom acids of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, sitting alongside lemon and cream of tartar in the chapters household manuals often devoted to invalid cookery: thin, cold, sharp drinks meant to slake a fever thirst and coax down a patient with no appetite. The pods come from Tamarindus indica, an African tree long naturalised across India and the Caribbean, and the sugar-packed pulp travelled well by ship, which is why an American grocer could stock it at all.