What is Sumac?
The Arabi Pantry
What is Sumac?
سماق
The lemon that grows on a bush and never needs squeezing.
Sumac at full power: musakhan, the dish that exists to showcase it.
Sumac is the dried, ground berry of a shrub that grows wild across the Middle East, and it solves a problem as old as cooking: how to make food taste bright without making it wet. The deep brick-red powder lands somewhere between lemon and cranberry: sour, fruity, a little astringent. It goes where liquid lemon can't, dusted over raw onions, rubbed under chicken skin, folded through a spice blend.
Palestine gave it its throne. Musakhan, chicken over bread with a full mountain of sumac-stained onions, is the national dish, and it is a sumac delivery system. Once the jar is open you'll understand: eggs, salads, grilled meat, even the rim of the hummus bowl start asking for it.
How to use it
- The sumac onions that finish every mashawi platter: sliced onion, sumac, parsley, 45 seconds
- The signature of musakhan
- Dusted over hummus, fattoush, eggs, and grilled meat
- A dry marinade with olive oil for chicken
The Jar Itself
The sour-red jar, two ways.
Ziyad Sumac 12oz Spices$8.49
Alsakhra, the Palestinian jar$8.99
Baharat, its usual co-conspirator$6.99
Free U.S. shipping on orders over $75.
Questions people actually ask
What does sumac taste like?
Sour first, a dry lemony tang, with a fruity, faintly winey depth underneath. Unlike lemon juice, it adds no liquid, which is why it can go on raw onions, fried eggs, and finished dishes.
Is sumac safe? I heard of poison sumac.
Culinary sumac and poison sumac are different plants entirely. The spice-jar sumac (Rhus coriaria) has been eaten across the Mediterranean for thousands of years. The Romans used it before lemons reached them.
What can I substitute for sumac?
Nothing perfectly. Lemon zest with a pinch of salt gestures in the same direction. Given what the jar costs and how long it lasts, the honest answer is: don't substitute, stock it.