It is widely used aromatic spice obtained from the dried inner bark of trees belonging to several species of Cinnamomum.
Cinnamon is classified in the botanical division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Magnoliates and family Lauraceae.
Cinnamon has sweet, woody fragrance in both ground and stick form. Cooks often used it to flavor baked goods and drinks, but cinnamon also works wonders in stews and sauces.
It is used in pulav, biryani, korma and most of the non-vegetarian dishes. Doughnuts may be passed though sugar and ground cinnamon and slices of apples for fritters may be sprinkled with cinnamon before frying. Cinnamon is used for making garam masala powder.
Cinnamon is also used in savory meat, chicken and lamb dishes. The sweet spicy flavor of cinnamon also enhances the taste of vegetables and fruits.
In western cooking, cinnamon was very popular used primarily to flavor desserts such as stewed fruits or spice cakes and rarely used in spicy dishes.
In Mexico, cinnamon is used to flavor coffee and it is a very important spice to that country.
In Greece, tomato based sauces are comprised of the spice cinnamon as one of the ingredient. The use of cinnamon gives the sauce a distinctively Greek flair.
Cinnamon bark is an agreeable astringent and cordial and as such is used with advantage in dysentery and looseness, proceeding from a weekend and languid state of the bowels, and in indigestion and chronic nervous debility.
In ancient times, because of its flavor and its scarcity, cinnamon was worth as much as fifteen times the value of silver.
The ancient Egyptians used it in embalming mixtures and in medieval Europe it was used in religious rites. Cinnamon was one of the first spices to be sought during the explorations of the ‘new world’ in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The spice of cinnamon
