Cinnamon-Vari-art "Cinnamon Varieties" by David Dendy (Francesco Sirene). NOTE: See also the files: cinnamon-msg, spices-msg, merch-spices-msg, herbs-msg, lavender-msg, p-herbals-msg, commerce-msg, saffron-msg, saffron-art. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 23:56:32 -0800 From: "David Dendy" Subject: SC - Cinnamon varieties (long) Cinnamon Varieties by Francesco Sirene There are a wide variety of types of cinnamon that have been used. In present international trade, there are three main varieties available. 1] Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) 2] Indonesian cinnamon/cassia (Cinnamomum burmanii, usually) and 3] Chinese cassia (Cinnamomum cassia). If you live in the United States or Canada, what you will find in your stores as "Cinnamon" is the Indonesian variety; in most of the world the word "cinnamon" today is reserved for Ceylon cinnamon, and the other varieties are called "cassia" (and are sold separately). In China the indigenous variety is used, but is unlikely to be called cinnamon -- rather it is known under the Chinese name of "kwei". Ceylon cinnamon is a pale tan colour, and comes in rolled quills made up of many paper-thin layers of the bark rolled up in one another. It is quite fragile, cinnamon-y but quite sweet. My experience is that many of my customers like to eat it straight. Indonesian cinnamon/cassia is more of a red-brown colour. It also comes in quills, but each quill is a single roll of a bark the thickness of heavy cardboard. The cinnamon-y flavour is stronger and almost pungent, and the wood is harder. Chinese cassia is usually quite dark brown. It normally comes not in rolled quills but rather as irregular pieces of thick bark, some of which may be partially curved and others flat. It has a very strong cinnamon-y flavour, but little sweetness. Which of these would you use in your recipe? Aha -- here is where the historical argumentation comes in. At this time, I won't go into the issue of whether the materials the Ancient Egyptians imported from Punt were actually cinnamon, nor the issue of where the cinnamon and cassia the Greeks and Romans imported via the Red Sea came from. These highly-contentious issues are not actually relevant to the subject of the Cooks' List, since the earliest reference to cinnamon or cassia being used in European cookery do not come until the eighth century (the monks of St. Gall put it in fish dishes). Before that time in Europe cinnamon and cassia were used only in medicine and perfumery. The name met with in European recipes is usually "cannell" or some variation, based on description of the sticks (cannell - channel - canal . . . all convey the idea of the grooved shape of the bark). Sometimes "synamone" or some variant form carries over the idea of a superior variety, as that was used by the Romans to distinguish the best. In Arabic sources the confusion can catch up with you. "Darchini" is the term most often used, for the more desired variety. The name is usually taken to mean "wood of China" (thus, for example, in various translations of Arabic cookbooks where the translators put "Chinese cinnamon" for this word). However, the word was borrowed by the Arabs from Persian or India, and probably the "chini" means "sweet" rather than "Chinese", so the actual meaning would be "sweet-wood" (so the origin is less definite). The other word commonly used, for a less expensive variety, was "kirfah", meaning "bark". (A third term, "salikeh", denoted a clove-flavoured bark). And what was the actual variety used in period? Almost certainly the usual cinnamon available to users in early medieval Europe and the Middle East was various sorts coming from north and western India, particularly Cinnamomum tamala (tej) and Cinnamomum iners, neither of which are offered in international trade today. There is no evidence to suggest Indonesian cinnamon was coming west at that time, and the common assumption that Chinese cassia was the "darchini" of the Arabs is also highly unlikely, since the extensive Chinese records give not the slightest hint of a westward export of kwei in this era. The various grades of cannell/synamon and kirfah/darchini would be simply an empirical assessment of the pungency, sweetness, and palatability (both Cinnamomum tamala and Cinnamomum iners are extremely variable in flavour, depending on where and in what conditions they grow). [Probably, in practical terms, at least until I line up a supplier in India to get the two obscure varieties, your best substitute in terms of flavour would be Indonesian cinnamon/cassia.] All this changed in the late thirteenth century, when Ceylon first began to export its variety of cinnamon (there is quite a story to why Ceylon cinnamon only began to be exported at this time, involving the kings of Ceylon needing to find a use for the tribute labour of a group of immigrants who had been granted land, but I won't go into it here -- ask me if you want the details). This new cinnamon from Ceylon was so much more desirable in flavour that it quickly took over the darchini/synamon name used for the "best" quality. This Ceylon cinnamon quickly became the desired variety, at a cost several times that of ordinary cinnamon from India (so much so that an English recipe for hypocras says to use synamome for lords, but that cannell is good enough for commoners). So for recipes after the thirteenth century, Ceylon cinnamon would be the choice of cooks if they could afford it. [Crass commercial plug -- if you don't have a handy local source of Ceylon cinnamon, you can buy it from us -- see our website URL in the signature block]. Moving out of period, but still interesting, is the explanation for why the usual North American spice is cassia, while Europe and most of the world uses Ceylon cinnamon. This is a result of the American Revolution. The newly-independent Americans quickly started their own trading ventures to Asia in search of spices, but they could not get access to Indian and Ceylonese supplies because India and Ceylon were in British hands (and the British didn't allow foreign traders). Instead the Americans got their pepper and other spices in the Indonesian islands, which were under rather looser Dutch control -- and the cinnamon available there was the Indonesian cinnamon/cassia variety. (The Americans also purchased some Chinese cassia.) Yours garrulously, Francesco Sirene David Dendy / ddendy at silk.net partner in Francesco Sirene, Spicer / sirene at silk.net Visit our Website at http://www.silk.net/sirene/ Edited by Mark S. Harris Cinnamon-Vari-msg 3