Cinnamon
Cinnamon: One of the rare spices to have a bark, cinnamon is present in many desserts in Europe but is also used in savoury dishes in Asia (Chinese five spices, etc.) In all cases, cinnamon is a much-loved spice and was traditionally very expensive: in the New Testament, it is said that cinnamon was more precious than gold. It seems that the French name for cinnamon (cannelle) comes from the similitude of cinnamon sticks with hollow sugarcane stems...
Be careful, it should not be confused with cassia: Cinnamomum cassia which is warmer, muskier, more powerful and less delicate (no eugenol).
History
A spice originally from Sri Lanka, Burma and southern India Currently the best cinnamon comes from Sri Lanka. Cinnamon appears in a treatise on botany dating back 2700 BC.
For a long time it was associated with ritual sacrifices and was used in the Egyptian embalming process. Hieroglyphs in a temple built under Thutmosis tells us that cinnamon would arrive by boat from Somalia with incense and myrrh.
Dioscorid praises these virtues: "All cinamome warms, softens, helps digestion, provokes urine, it is good against poison and venomous beasts" (Dioscoride, I, 13 ; traduction de J. de Moulins en 1572).
Having killed his wife in a fit of anger, Nero, full of remorse burned Rome's stores of cinnamon at every anniversary of her death.
Cinnamon became more widespread in Europe in the thirteenth century as before it had been priceless. At the same time, Kazwini, an Arab writer, wrote about the trade in this spice.
From the sixteenth century, the Portuguese occupied the island of Ceylon. And it became the spearhead of Portuguese trade for the next century. Then the Dutch took over the monopoly from 1636 to 1976 by burning excess cinnamon to keep prices up. Finally the English took over the market (see general history of spices). In the late eighteenth century, it was introduced to Java and the Seychelles thanks to Pierre Poivre.
Beliefs
- Greco-roman myth, conveyed by Arab merchants (after Herodotus, Histories)
- La cannelle provenait d'une montagne du fin fond de l'Arabie, où elle était jalousement gardée par de cruels oiseaux de proie qui l'utilisaient pour bâtir leurs nids. Comme ils nichaient sur les flancs de la montagne, les braves explorateurs arabes devaient lancer de gros et sanglants quartiers de viande de singe pour que les oiseaux, avides de sang, les entreposent dans leurs nids qui finissaient par céder sous la masse. Les courageux explorateurs arabes devaient faire très vite pour grappiller quelques fragments de cannelle provenant des nids, car les oiseaux ne restaient pas dupes longtemps.
- Austrian tradition: lovers give each other small bouquets containing cinnamon, as proof of their love.
The language of flowers (Victorian era): cinnamon = "My fortune is at your feet"
Virtues
- Stimulant (cinnamic aldehyde)
- Astringent
- Carminative, against diarrhoea and stomach pains
- Powerful antiseptic, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial
- in aromatherapy against the flu and chills
- antispasmodic
Composition
- 4 to 10% essential oil
- Phenylpropanoids
- 50 to 75% cinnaminic aldehyde
- 4 to 10% eugenol
- safrol, cinnaminic acid ester 3% terpenes:
- camphor, pinene, cineol, phellandrene
Comment: eugenol is used industrially as a base for vanillin hemisynthesis (vanilla flavouring)
The plant
Cinnamomum verum J. Presl
Lauraceae family like bayleaf
Small evergreen tree growing between 5 and 7 metres (wild up to 10 - 15m) in sandy soil in hot and humid regions.
the leaves are opposite each other, crossed and elliptic. They have three characteristic parallel nervures. They are also aromatic.
The bark is harvested during the rainy season (for Ceylon: May-June and October-November) as, as it is full of sap, it is easier to peel off. The layer of outer bark is scraped off.
There are 50 to 250 species including Cinnamon cassia: cassia or false cinnamon
Articles extraits de Toil'd'épices |
Garlic
Cinnamon
Lemon grass
Coriander
Orange blossom
Ginger
Bayleaf
Oregano
Parsley
Chilli
Rosemary
Thyme
Vanilla
