It was in January this year that I posted about how the Hoyts cinnamon I had bought turned to a slimy, gelatinous mass of goo when it came into contact with hot water. The Masterfoods cinnamon I had bought to compare it with had no such problems. Later on I bought some McCormick cinnamon because it was on special and thus cheaper than the Masterfoods, but I never used it in hot chocolate or any sauces so didn't take the opportunity to see whether it exhibited the same properties as the Hoyts... it had the same sweet smell as the Hoyts' did, and I intended to test it but never got around to it.
The night before last I made Gam a sticky date pudding. Usually I modify the recipe a bit and add a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon, some nutmeg and a few teaspoons of cocoa powder (not enough to make it chocolate-y, but for a richer flavour). That night I forgot- I'm still a bit out of it because I'm not back on a full solid diet and not getting enough energy to keep my brain functioning properly (it's not premature alzheimer's disease!). So I decided to add a bit of cinnamon and cocoa to the butterscotch toffee sauce. It tasted good, but when it cooled it went thick (as the sauce usually does) and when reheated stayed thick (which it usually doesn't). So I decided to investigate the cinnamon by putting a little in a glass with some hot water. Sure enough...
I still can't really believe that this is *just* cinnamon and water... there's got to be something in the cinnamon.
4 comments:
EWWW
Could be something in the water ...
That's incredible. I thought cinnamon was practically insoluble in water.
Then I decided to consult Wikipedia for you and found out that:
The two barks [Cassia and Cinnamon] when whole are easily distinguished, and their microscopic characteristics are also quite distinct. Cinnamon sticks (or quills) have many thin layers and can easily be made into powder using a coffee or spice grinder whereas cassia sticks are much harder, made up of one thick layer, capable of damaging a spice or coffee grinder. It is a bit harder to tell powdered cinnamon from powdered cassia. When powdered bark is treated with tincture of iodine (a test for starch), little effect is visible in the case of pure cinnamon of good quality, but when cassia is present a deep-blue tint is produced, the intensity of the coloration depending on the proportion of cassia.
That starch would make it glutinous when mixed with water I guess...
It doesn't really behave like a starch, as the gelatinising effect is pretty much instantaneous... I was thinking more along the lines of some kind of gum, whether naturally present in cinnamon bark (haven't been able to find any information as to this) or as an adulterant (which would be undetectable by many or most of the usual methods of detecting adulterants in spices).
Either way, there is a profound difference between the behaviour of the McCormick and Hoyts brand 'cinnamon' and the Masterfoods... but perhaps it's just that the former two are really cinnamon and Masterfoods is actually cassia.
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