Friday, February 5, 2010

Sooo it wasn't cinnamon I used?!?!?

Cinnamon.  We all take it for granted that those brown sticks we buy during the year and in huge bulk quantities at Christmas time are indeed cinnamon sticks.  Well, that is not entirely true.

According to Wikipedia, "Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum, synonym C. zeylanicum) is a small evergreen tree belonging to the family Lauraceae, native to Sri Lanka,[1] or the spice obtained from the tree's bark. It is often confused with other similar species and the similar spices derived from them, such as Cassia and Cinnamomum burmannii, which are often calledcinnamon too. Cinnamon lowers the rate of cellular respiration in yeast."


So what Chef? What are you saying?  


Well, the next time you go to buy cinnamon here is a picture of what you are actually looking for.
On the Left is that TRUE cinnamon looks like, the right is Indonesian cinnamon.  While we in North America don't really know the difference between the two or more types of cinnamon I assure you the real deal can't be beat!  


So the next time you reach for that stick of Cassia, just remember its flavor maybe what you remember as cinnamon, but in another part of the earth true cinnamon is king!




Thanks for reading!


Chef Corey