Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Cinnamon
Learn how to master this wonderfully warming spice.
Cinnamon is beloved by home cooks and culinary enthusiasts around the world. Our collective love for cinnamon is so strong that we have a National Cinnamon Day to celebrate the spice on November 1 every year.
There are plenty of reasons why cinnamon is a kitchen staple. This warm, sweet, and slightly pungent seasoning tastes as good as it smells. It also offers a lively and comforting scent that lends well to savory entrees and sweets, while adding a layer of flavor and aroma to beverages like hot tea and chai lattes. Read on to discover the ins ad outs of this essential spice, including how to cook with and store cinnamon.
What Is Cinnamon and Where Does It Come From?
Cinnamon is the inner bark of certain types of evergreen trees belonging to the Cinnamomum family. Cinnamon farmers cut the tree bark into sheets and extract the inner bark, which is then rolled into a tube, similar to a scroll.
Related: Surprising Ways to Use Cinnamon Sticks
The tube-like sticks could be sold in a package of a few or be ground into powder and packaged into this mainstay spice on grocery store shelves.
What Does Cinnamon Taste Like?
While different types of cinnamon are produced commercially for culinary use, cinnamon generally has a sweet, woody, and smokey flavor and aroma.
Whole vs. Ground
You can find cinnamon in whole, ground, and liquid (as an extract) forms. Ground or whole, the taste is the same other than its texture. However, sticks offer a fresher flavor that lasts longer than ground cinnamon when they're ground just before use.
How you plan to use the spice will determine whether you will use whole or ground. Ground cinnamon is best used for cooking and baking because it is the most convenient. Cinnamon sticks are best used for hot beverage infusion, stovetop, and slow cooking.
Related: Our Best Cinnamon Roll Recipes
Types of Cinnamon
There are two classes of cinnamon — cassia and Ceylon. Within each type, the origin of the cinnamon variety differs, with each offering a unique flavor, texture, and appearance.
Cassia
Cassia cinnamon is the most common type of cinnamon in grocery store shelves. Native to China, cinnamon cassia has a red-brown hue with a rough texture and coarser grinds. It also has a spicy-sweet flavor with a hint of bitter woodiness.
This type of cinnamon is the most readily used in commercial products, homemade cooking, and baking for its bold and intense flavor that becomes less intense with cooking. A little of this type of cinnamon added to your favorite dishes goes a long way.
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Ceylon
Ceylon cinnamon is also known as soft cinnamon for its smooth texture. This pale, tan-colored and easily grindable cinnamon is native to Sri Lanka and Southern India and is also grown in Mexico and East Africa.
It has a mild, subtle, and delicate flavor and a sweeter scent than the cassia variety. The inner bark extracted from the Cinnamomum verum tree is thinner sheets, creating finer grinds than cassia cinnamon. Ceylon cinnamon is best for recipes where you prefer only having a hint of spice without overpowering other ingredients.
How to Cook with Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a versatile spice ingredient for spice blends like Chinese five-spice, chai spice, pumpkin spice, and jerk spice. On its own, cinnamon is palate-pleasing as it blends in well with a wide array of beverages and savory and sweet dishes. Ground and whole cinnamon are used differently depending on what you make.
Using Ground Cinnamon
Sprinkle ground cinnamon on tea, coffee, lattes, oatmeal and desserts like French toasts, cinnamon rolls, streusel, churros, cakes, pies, and cookies, for a kick of spice and aroma.
Ground cinnamon also offers a distinct flavor to savory dishes like soups, stews, tagines, shawarmas, pho, roasted meats, veggies, nuts, pumpkin seeds, and popcorn. Use it also as a blend of spice for marinating rubs.
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Using Cinnamon Sticks
Whole cinnamon sticks are more than a garnish that adds a finishing touch to dishes. They can be a hot beverage stirrer and infuser for a fresher, longer-lasting flavor and aroma. Use them in coffee, tea, chai, ciders, and mulled wine to give you that warm, fuzzy comfort.
The cinnamon quills are also suitable for stovetop cooking and slow cooking. Add a stick while making a hearty oatmeal or break the quill into pieces to cook with your favorite roasts.
You can also give your grains an extra punch of spice by placing a stick or two into your pot of curried rice, quinoa, and couscous.
How to Store Cinnamon
Unopened ground cinnamon can stay in its original container for up to 3 to 4 years, per the USDA FoodKeeper App. Packaged ground cinnamon will usually have a best-before or best-by date stated on the package, though cinnamon technically doesn’t expire.
Once opened, ground cinnamon won’t stay fresh for long, and it starts losing its potency when exposed to air. It is best to buy in small amounts and use it quickly.
Cinnamon sticks are typically sold in a plastic package. Transfer them into a jar or a container to maintain their freshness. Keep ground cinnamon and sticks in an airtight container in a cool, dark, and dry space, like your spice drawer or a kitchen cupboard. Ensure to reseal the container after use to keep moisture at bay.
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