Cinnamon

Left, cinnamon rolls prior to cooking. Center, dried cinnamon. Right, cinnamon plant.

       Cinnamon has been used by man since Biblical times and is often mentioned in both the Old and the New Testaments. The Chinese used cinnamon as early as 2700 B.C. It comes from the bark of the cinnamon tree, a small shrubby tree with thick shiny leaves and small flowers that is native to Ceylon and India.

       Cinnamon and cassia, which closely resembles cinnamon both in appearance and taste, were often mistaken for each other in early writings. Cassia was used long before cinnamon, but when cinnamon was discovered, cassia lost some of its popularity.

       In 1505 the Portuguese sailed around the southern tip of Africa. It was on this voyage that they discovered Ceylon and its cinnamon. Before this time, cinnamon was brought to Europe over the old caravan routes across the eastern Mediterranean region. In 1536 the Portuguese occupied Ceylon for the sake of the cinnamon trade. About two hundred years later the Dutch took Ceylon away from the Portuguese and with it the production of cinnamon.

       Under Dutch rule, Ceylonese princes were forced to give cinnamon bark as tribute. To make sure that cinnamon would always be available, cinnamon-cutters were placed in an especially low social class from which there was absolutely no escape. Generation after generation of natives was born into the cinnamon-cutting group to a life of severe punishment and never-ending labor under the blistering tropical sun. These were the natives who brought cultivation of Ceylon's cinnamon to its peak.

       Cinnamon was very difficult to cultivate and transport. The bark of the upper shoots was peeled off in thin sheets like paper and fitted together in long sticks or quills containing hundreds of layers. In this way cinnamon was shipped to Europe. Then, in European warehouses, it was ground between two stones and sifted through silk.

       Cinnamon bark is collected just after the rainy seasons begin (the two rainy seasons occur from May to August and from November to January). At this time the sap begins to circulate abundantly between the wood and the bark and, therefore, allows easy peeling. The young trees are cut back so that extra shoots will develop from the roots. The shoots, which are long and slender and furnish the commercial product, are cut twice a year. The bark of year-old shoots has very little flavor, and the best bark comes from shoots that are two years old. The selected twigs are usually trimmed before being taken to the peeling shed where the bark is removed with special knives.

       Cinnamon is grown in Ceylon, Burma, southern India, and parts of Malaya and, to some extent, in South America and the West Indies. No longer are all the plantations owned and managed by Europeans, nor are the Ceylonese princes forced to pay tribute in cinnamon bark.

       Cinnamon-growing, however, seems to have fallen off in recent years, and southern Ceylon supplies most of the cinnamon that is needed. Every year several thousand tons of cinnamon quills are shipped from Ceylon to other countries, for cinnamon is one of the most popular spices. It is used principally in the bakery trade and as a flavoring in home cooking. It is also used in candy, gum, dentifrices, incense, perfumes, and some medicines. Today three-fourths of all the cinnamon used is cassia mixed with the true cinnamon.

       Those of us who like cinnamon bread and cinnamon toast will agree, surely, that cinnamon ranks with cloves and pepper as one of the most important as well as one of the most useful spices.