What Is Cinnamon?

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The inner bark of a tropical evergreen tree, harvested during the rainy season when piable and then dried into curls sold as sticks or ground into a powder. With its warm, sweet flavor, cinnamon is one of the biggest workhorses on the spice shelf. Cooks often use it to flavor baked goods and drinks, but cinnamon also works wonders in stews and sauces.

The best cinnamon is Ceylon cinnamon = canela = Sri Lanka cinnamon = true cinnamon. Indonesian cinnamon has a similar taste, but larger quills. Moreover, it is much of the cinnamon sold in the United States is cassia cinnamon, which isn't as well regarded aromatic bark used as a spice Tropical Asian tree with aromatic yellowish-brown bark; source of the spice cinnamon. Spice from the dried aromatic bark of the Ceylon cinnamon tree; used as rolled strips or ground.

History and Origin of Cinnamon: Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savory foods. While Cinnamomum verum is sometimes considered to be "true cinnamon", most cinnamon in international commerce is derived from related species, ...
... which are also referred to as "cassia" to distinguish them from "true cinnamon".

The first Greek reference to kasia is found in a poem by Sappho in the 7th century BC. According to Herodotus, both cinnamon and cassia grew in Arabia, together with incense, myrrh, and ladanum, and are guarded by winged serpents. The phoenix was reputed to build its nest from cinnamon and cassia. But Herodotus mentions other writers that see the home of Dionysos, e.g., India, as the source of cassia. While Theophrastus gives a rather good account of the plants, a curious method for harvesting (worms eat away the wood and leave the bark behind) was described.

The Greeks used kásia or malabathron to flavour wine, together with absinth wormwood (Artemisia absinthium). Egyptian recipes for kyphi, an aromatic used for burning, included cinnamon and cassia from Hellenistic times onwards. The gifts of Hellenistic rulers to temples sometimes included cassia and cinnamon as well as incense, myrrh, and Indian incense (kostos), so we can conclude that the Greeks used it in this way too. Cinnamon has been known from remote antiquity. It was imported to Egypt as early as 2000 BC, but those who report that it had come from China confuse it with cassia.

The Hebrew Bible makes specific mention of the spice many times: first when Moses is commanded to use both sweet cinnamon in Proverbs where the lover's bed is perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon; and in Song of Solomon, a song describing the beauty of his beloved, cinnamon scents her garments like the smell of Lebanon. Cassia was also part of the ketoret, the consecrated incense described in the Hebrew Bible and Talmud.It was offered on the specialized incense altar in the time when the Tabernacle was located in the First and Second Jerusalem Temples. The ketoret was an important component of the Temple service in Jerusalem.

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