Cinnamon is rightfully considered one of the oldest spices known to man. Ancestors used it to make drinks, decoctions and many famous dishes, and we continue to add to our culinary undertakings. You will not surprise anyone with delicious pastries, caressing the smell with a delicate aroma of cinnamon, excellent coffee, warming mulled wine. Despite the abundance of famous dishes, most cooks are used to seeing the spice in a ground form, and not everyone knows how to use cinnamon sticks in cooking.
Homeland of extraordinary spice
If you look at historical sources, you can find out that Southeast Asia is considered the birthplace of cinnamon , but this does not guarantee that any spice collected in this region will meet a high quality indicator. The best product is considered to be spice brought from Sri Lanka. The second producing country is India. It is important to pay attention to the place where the spice was collected, because goods from Indonesia, Burma, Vietnam and China not only do not compete with spices grown by leading manufacturers, but also harm health. In these countries, cinnamon substitute is actively grown - cassia, if you look at the appearance, it cannot be distinguished from the original spice, and only a person who is well versed in this matter can find differences in taste. Real cinnamon will never affect the body negatively, but in the case of cassia this is possible - coumarin is included in the spice, which reduces blood coagulation.
What is it used for?
Before you start cooking, you need to think carefully about how to use cinnamon sticks in creating a culinary masterpiece. For baking flour products, it is easier and faster to purchase a ground version of spicy spices; almost every modern store has this product on its shelves. A powder product can also be added to coffee. If the purpose of cooking is a cocktail or tea, where it is important to convey not only taste, but also a pleasant appearance, it is better to purchase cinnamon in sticks. It leaves no cloudy sediment. Tea with cinnamon sticks is not only original, but also endlessly delicious.
Recipes of some dishes suggest the presence of a flavoring shade left by the presence of spices during the cooking process. In the end result, the spice should not be in the dish, experienced cooks are here and give an example of how to use cinnamon sticks to get out of the delicate situation. They are fried in vegetable oil, and then discarded, thereby preserving the taste of the spice without being in the components of the dish. Thus, the powder can no longer be pulled out.
How many times can cinnamon sticks be used?
Many housewives are wondering if it is possible to use cinnamon sticks several times, or to throw them away after the first use? It all depends on the personal preferences of the hostess. If you cook stewed fruit, jam or add cinnamon to mulled wine, then after cooking is complete, you can safely get it and use it several more times. However, do not forget that with each new time cinnamon will give the dish less flavor, and the taste will become less saturated. The opinion of housewives agreed that the optimal number of use of chopped spice sticks is three times.
How to grind cinnamon?
Life presents many surprises: when you come to the store for cinnamon powder, you may not find it, but you will get spice in the form of sticks. Inexperienced chefs may wonder how to use cinnamon sticks in baking? The answer is quite obvious - to grind, but here a person warns a number of technical subtleties.
Grating such cinnamon on a grater is extremely problematic, trying to do it in a coffee grinder or using a blender is not a good idea, instead of fine powder you will get large and uneven pieces. Drying the sticks in a dry pan will be the right way out, which will remove excess moisture from it, making it brittle, and the pleasant aroma, for which people love the spice, will increase several times.
The second step is to place the dried sticks in a tight bag and chop it with a rolling pin, only after that the obtained pieces can be grinded in a coffee grinder or blender. It is not necessary to crush all cinnamon at once, whole sticks keep the aroma saturated throughout the year, and the powder is only half this period.
Cinnamon oil
The amount of essential oils used by humans for cosmetic or medicinal purposes, today reaches a huge value. Cinnamon oil is not popular. Not from the fact that the positive qualities of this tool are exaggerated, but because most people follow fashion and acquire only publicized trends. History confirms the facts: in ancient times, cinnamon was in high demand, and the cost of spice successfully competed with gold products. Supporters of Chinese medicine consider cinnamon to be one of the strongest healing ingredients, but despite this, few people purposefully look for this particular essential oil.
Ceylon Cinnamon. How to distinguish from a fake?
The best spice is extracted from the bark of a tree that sprouts in Sri Lanka or in Western India. Today, when many people know stories about how shops cheat customers by giving cassia, which has a number of negative properties, as a real spice, Ceylon cinnamon is in great demand among lovers of aromatic spices. There are several ways to check your purchase at the store. To do this, you need to carefully study the cinnamon sticks: the real spice has a pleasant light brown color, the fake is famous for its brownish-brown hue. Cassia in the process of delivery from the collection and packaging point to the store is deformed, it itself is very fragile, its surface will always, well, or almost always, be decorated with a cobweb of cracks. The third way, which allows you to make sure that the purchase is correct: drip iodine on the chopped stick - cassia turns blue.
Cinnamon properties
Like any other product, cinnamon has a list of positive and negative properties. The spice itself is not capable of harming human health, but everything can change if he begins to abuse the spice: do not eat it with whole spoons, especially several times in one day. Cinnamon contributes to weight loss, which leads some people to believe that increasing the dose will help to achieve a better result, but this is not the spice with which this method will go off with a bang. In a moderate amount, seasoning contributes to the overall healing of the body, but it is worth crossing the line, and the effect may seem inversely proportional to the desired. A small amount of cinnamon will positively affect the functioning of the brain, and eventually the visual system, however, the body will respond to an overdose with a breakdown, an emotional state will be suppressed, and severe pain in the head may also appear.
Where to buy cinnamon sticks?
This question is asked by many culinary specialists. Especially those who know how to use cinnamon sticks in cooking, because the flavor of seasonings sold in this form is stronger and more pleasant than that of the powder, which forces people to make a choice in its favor. Not all stores can find this product, but to the services of users of the World Wide Web online stores.