Aromatics · Ci

Cinnamon

Cinnamaldehyde 60–75%

Per 100 g

247 kcal Energy

4 g Protein

80.6 g Carbs

1.2 g Fat

53.1 g Fibre

Gluten-free

Let’s cook with it → Invent something with it

What it is for

They give the character. Same technique, same ingredient, a different trio of spices — and the dish moves to another cuisine entirely. Most of their aroma molecules are volatile.

Where it catches you out

Volatile ones go in last, sturdy ones first. Mint and basil after the heat; bay and cinnamon right at the start.

The knack

Sticks go into long cooking, powder into the last five minutes: boiled long, ground cinnamon turns bitter.

Storage and health

How to keep it, and who it suits.

Keeping it

Cinnamon sticks keep 3-4 years airtight, ground cinnamon about a year.

Gluten-free

Plain cinnamon is tree bark and contains no gluten.

Glycaemic index

This ingredient carries no meaningful carbohydrate, so it has no glycaemic index. On its own it will not move blood sugar; what you eat alongside it decides that.

What it works with

Pairings, and the reason for each

"They go well together" is not an explanation. Every pairing below has a chemical or structural mechanism under it.

Milk →

Cinnamaldehyde is highly volatile, so dusting it onto a warm surface releases it into the headspace exactly as it reaches the nose. Stirred in early, most of it is lost.

Red meat →

Cinnamaldehyde masks the aldehydes of warmed-over lipid oxidation, which is a real reason Middle Eastern and Anatolian meat dishes use it.

Also works with

Sugar

Almond

Rice

Honey

Molasses

Walnut

What it fights with

Water

Prolonged boiling: cinnamaldehyde is 66–76% of the volatile oil and is lost before almost anything else in the dish.

What goes on top

Dusted over muhallebi, sütlaç, salep, boza and stewed fruit

Key compounds

Sinnamaldehit: 66–76% of the volatile oil; it also gives a trigeminal warming sensation through the nerve that senses physical heat, so "warm spice" is not a metaphor.
Kumarin: Under 0.004% in Ceylon but up to about 1% in cassia; a genuine hepatotoxicity concern at high habitual intakes and the one real safety distinction between the two barks.

Nutritionally

Cassia’s coumarin content is the one nutritionally important fact about cinnamon. The blood-sugar claims are inconsistent and dose-dependent.

Terms on this page

Trigeminal: A sensation carried by the touch-and-temperature nerve rather than taste or smell. Chilli heat and mint cool are both this.

Where it turns up

What is made with it

1 dishes in the database use it.

Preserving & fermentation 1

Antakya sürk

The most heavily spiced member of the çökelek family. The curd is kneaded with pepper paste and a broad spice battery led by wild thyme, then formed into cones and matured.

Hatay

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