The TANGY Spice That Makes Everything Taste Better

Thanks for showing what Sumac looks like. My mother, who is Native American, said I could eat it (it grows wild where I grew up), but in my adult life while cooking with it, I never knew I had often eaten it fresh as a child, until this video. It's delicious, better than the dried version but really stains your hands and difficult to remove. It seemed fine to eat where it grows in Northern MI, at least.

I'm Native (Diné; our people are mostly located in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Canada) and our tribe has used sumac berries a lot too. My favourite is a kind of parriage/hot drink we make with it. It's called chiłchín in our language. I actually always enjoyed eating them raw because of the flavor and the sourness/tanginess. The berries are also really sticky and it stays on your fingers afterward and even the flavour will linger for hours as long as that residue is on them. I live in the city now and haven't had fresh ones in years but I can totally taste them just thinking about it, hahah. They also don't grow in trees or in horns like that where I lived. They grew in bushes and in clusters. They also gather a lot of dirt on them because of how sticky they are.

Here is a Turkish classic salad for you where we use sumac. You will need onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, some lemon juice, olive oil, apple or grape vinegar and sumac. Cut the vegies into cubes ( not so tiny). Put some lemon juice, sumac, salt and olive oil on onions and massage them until the onions absorb sumacs color. Now mix every thing together and enjoy.

I’m Canadian and I was surprised to find recipes with sumac in my great grandmothers cookbooks. Found out it was used here before citrus fruits became widely available. I thought it was almost exclusively a Middle Eastern cuisine ingredient.

An indigenous mountain tribe in Thailand, the Hmong people, they rub the hard sumac berries with fresh mustard greens, salt & ground dry thai red chilis. So simple yet refreshing.

I live in Tennessee, and it grows wild all over the place where I used to live. I could probably walk down the road a little way from here and find some in full fruit right now. My mother described what she called "sumac lemonade" that people used to drink during the Great Depression because it was so easy to come by, and you could sweeten it with whatever you happened to have, because it's meant to be tart. In this area, unless you found a wild beehive, the cheapest sweetener at that time was probably sorghum syrup, but if you had a little sugar, it wouldn't take much. I never tried it, but the way she described it, they used it fresh, not dried.

I work at a french patisserie and I have been trying to add a little variation to classic macaroon fillings. I think I will try a Sumach & dried fig filling soon!

In Azerbaijan region of Iran sumac trees grow wild and it's truly amazing. We usually use on kebabs and meat dishes

I first tried sumac in Turkey about 10 years ago. I was like "WHAT IS THIS DELICIOUS FLAVOR????". I love to use it with tahini and a pinch of salt on fresh sliced ripe tomatoes for a salad.

Thank you for describing this spice so thoroughly. I had a friend from Iran years ago. I would occasionally be invited to his parents house for dinner. I fondly recall being offered a small dish of sumac for my rice and was very glad I tried some. The tartness and unique flavor were incredibly delicious. I asked what this spice was but no one had a western name for it and this was before the internet days too. Now I know what to look for by name and taste that wonderful flavor again. 😁👍

I use it in cocktails to garnish the glass rim. Simply mix it with a little bit of salt and sugar. It not only looks great, it tastes amazing and gives the cocktail some zingy flowery notes :)

It is fabulous on corn on the cob, corn salad, and popcorn! I also use it to garnish cold cucumber cream or asparagus soup.

never even heard about it before, but the moment this video ended I went and ordered sumac, just did a first taste test on rice and it was heaven! it feels like I found something that I’ve been missing for a long time. your channel is such a gem! thank you for your content, so useful and enjoyable to watch!

Here in Texas the shrubbery from which Sumac is grown on makes for excellent walking staffs plus it has historically been used by native Texans as anything from a Excellence Lemonade/Tea substitute to in some of its Strongest forms as a cure for a hangover!!!🤠👍

I’m Ashkenazi but was introduced to this by a North African Jewish family, and now I can’t stop using it!!! It’s truly an amazing flavour and I can’t wait to discover more dishes from more cultures that use it 😁

You will have to be making these on more spices! The format is so fascinating and informative!

Thanks for an informative video. You're quickly becoming the Alton Brown of Middle-Eastern cuisine. I've ditched all TV long time ago in favor of good content like yours. Please keep up the good work. 👍😊😉

OMG! I love sumac but have only used it to make Za'Atar. Thank you for these other ideas. I just harvested 70 lbs of honey from my beehives, so those honey-sumac nuts will be next on my lists! 🤩

My dad bought sumac months ago and we haven’t used it once yet! Seeing this vid I think I’ll finally give it a try

I really like your speaking voice; clear, succinct, and to the point.