First of all, I love to burn scented candles. Over the years I've learned the importance of buying non toxic organic candles made of soy wax.
Then I had to learn about scents interfering with each other.
I've learned that flowery fragrances can sometimes compete with great food aromas. Some flowers work great but others clash.
Once scent which seems to blend with everything is cinnamon. Have you noticed that? Cinnamon works with sweet but it also works with meats and even spicy.
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tress from the Cinnamomum that is use din both sweet and savoury foods. Cinnamon trees are native to South East Asia.
Cinnamon bark is widely used as a spice. It is principally employed in cookery as a condiment and flavoring material. It is used in the preparation of chocolate, especially in Mexico, which is the main importer of true cinnamon.
It is also used in many dessert recipes, such as apple pie, donuts, and cinnamon buns as well as spicy candies, tea, hot cocoa, and liqueurs. True cinnamon, rather than cassia, is more suitable for use in sweet dishes. In the Middle East, it is often used in savory dishes of chicken and lamb.
In the United States, cinnamon and sugar are often used to flavor cereals, bread-based dishes, and fruits, especially apples; a cinnamon-sugar mixture is even sold separately for such purposes. Cinnamon can also be used in pickling. Cinnamon bark is one of the few spices that can be consumed directly.
Cinnamon powder has long been an important spice in Persian cuisine, used in a variety of thick soups, drinks, and sweets. It is often mixed with rosewater or other spices to make a cinnamon-based curry powder for stews or just sprinkled on sweet treats (most notably Shole-zard, Persian شله زرد).
It is also used in sambar powder or BisiBelebath powder in Karnataka, which gives it a rich aroma and tastes unique. It is also used in Turkish cuisine for both sweet and savory dishes.
Cinnamon has been proposed for use as an insect repellent, although it remains untested. Cinnamon leaf oil has been found to be very effective in killing mosquito larvae.
The compounds cinnamaldehyde, cinnamyl acetate, eugenol, and anethole, that are contained in cinnamon leaf oil, were found to have the highest effectiveness against mosquito larvae.
Also cinnamon aromas have some health benefits although these are not guaranteed.
Cinnamon bark, a component of the traditional Japanese medicine Mao-to,
has been shown in a 2008 study published in the
Journal of General Virology
to have an antiviral therapeutic effect.
Do you use cinnamon aromas? Oils, candles or perfume?
Let me know your thoughts on cinnamon.
Forum Home
