Cinnamon as a Spice in Cooking
Most spices are used exclusively in meat and vegetable dishes. Less common is the spice that is used in an assortment of sweet or holiday dishes. This spice is cinnamon. Taste qualities, as well as the warm aroma of cinnamon, are ideal for recipes for various puddings, jams, and pastries. The spread of cinnamon began from Sri Lanka. There, cinnamon is harvested in the form of tree bark. Cinnamon hits the store shelves either in the form of ready-made pods or in the form of a powder.
The use of cinnamon is characteristic of almost all cuisines of the world. According to taste characteristics, cinnamon has a bitter-spicy aroma. Despite the popularity of cinnamon in sweet holiday dishes, cinnamon is also found in a variety of meat, vegetable, and condiment dishes. So, in the Middle East, the use of cinnamon is typical for spicy lamb and chicken dishes. American cuisine highlights cinnamon with sugar, as an excellent addition to various cereals, fruit dishes (especially apples). In German cuisine, cinnamon is extremely rarely used for cooking meat dishes - more often for sweets, pastries or mulled wine, combined with the same sugar.
A more unconventional use for cinnamon is flavoring various sauces and marinades. Dairy products also acquire an interesting taste if cinnamon is added to them. The Indian curry seasoning contains cinnamon in its composition, which shows the high culinary significance of cinnamon. A recommendation that may be useful is to add cinnamon is best 10 minutes before the dish is ready. In the process of long-term heat treatment, cinnamon can impart an unpleasant bitterness to the dish.
The Benefits and Harms of Cinnamon
From a medical point of view, cinnamon has a lot of beneficial effects on the body. However, like any drug, cinnamon cannot be recommended to absolutely everyone. Cinnamon contains many different trace elements: brown alcohol, tannins, ash, saturated fatty acids, essential oil and others. Cinnamon contains substances that are necessary for human life: iron, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, selenium, copper, potassium, sodium. The use of cinnamon leads to the following positive changes: in the human body: blood clots in the vessels dissolve, cholesterol levels decrease, unnecessary salt is removed from the body, the liver and choleretic system are cleansed. Also, cinnamon can be useful for people with high blood sugar levels, because. it greatly reduces it. In some cases, cinnamon may be contraindicated. For the most part, cinnamon should not be overused. Otherwise, it can lead to headaches, low blood pressure, loss of strength, and an allergic reaction.
Cinnamon Spice - History and Modernity
In ancient Greece, cinnamon was considered one of the most expensive spices. In other civilizations of that time, this trend was also traced. Already in the ancient world, cinnamon was used for baking bakery products. Over time, the use of cinnamon has become more extensive. However, the main focus of flavoring drinks and pastries has been preserved in the modern world.