Authentic Sumac (Rhus coriaria)

This dried and ground fruit within the cashew family has a tangy, sharp, lemon-like flavor without the acidity. popular in mid-eastern cuisines, try it in kebabs, chicken, fish, hummus, salads, dressings.

In Latin it's called Rhus coriaria

Factoids:  The dried fruits of some species are ground to produce a tangy, crimson spice popular in many countries. Fruits are also used to make a traditional "pink lemonade" beverage by steeping them in water, straining to remove the hairs that may irritate the mouth or throat, sometimes adding sweeteners such as honey or sugar.

The fruits (called drupes) of Rhus coriaria are ground into a reddish-purple powder used as a spice in Middle Eastern cuisine to add a tart, lemony taste to salads or meat. In Arab cuisine, it is used as a garnish on meze dishes such as hummus and tashi (yum!) , it is also commonly added to falafel.

Syrian cuisine uses the spice as one of the main ingredients of Kubah
Sumakieh.   It is added to salads in the Levant, as well as being one of the main ingredients in the Palestinian dish musakhan. In Afghan, Armenian, Bangladeshi, Iraqi, Indian, Iranian, Mizrahi, and Pakistani cuisines, sumac is added to rice or kebab. In Armenian, Azerbaijani, Central Asian, Syrian, Jordanian, Lebanese, Israeli, Turkish cuisine and Kurdish, it is added to salads, kebab and lahmajoun. Sumac is often used in the spice mixture za'atar.

During medieval times, primarily from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, Sumac appeared in cookbooks frequently used by the affluent in Western Europe. One dish in particular called sumāqiyya, a stew made from sumac, was frequently anglicized as "somacchia" by Europeans.

In North America, the smooth sumac (R. glabra'), three-leaf sumac (R. trilobata), and staghorn sumac (R. typhina) are sometimes used to make a beverage termed "sumac-ade", "Indian lemonade", or "rhus juice". This drink is made by soaking the drupes in cool water, rubbing them to extract the essence, straining the liquid through a cotton cloth (important), and sweetening it. Native Americans also use the leaves and drupes of these sumacs combined with tobacco in traditional smoking mixtures.

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