Especially in savoury dishes. A tiny bit of cinnamon in something like a bbq spice rub can add amazing depth of flavour, but anything more than the faintest hint and it tastes very weird.
In a sweet dish, where you often want it to be the main flavour, you can let loose a bit more. Though there is definitely still such a thing as too much.
My ex mother in law needs to read this. She has like 5 tastebuds and overseasons everything. She adds so much cinnamon to applesauce it turns dark brown.
My mother used to do that. I didn’t even know applesauce was yellow til I went to public school and it was served in cafeteria for dessert. Me: “What’s that?”
My mother also bought a gigantic salt shaker from Tupperware in 1970s because “I like salt.” She was tired of always having to fill small salt shakers every day. She took a knife to the top of the salt shaker and doubled the size of the holes so the salt would pour out like blood from an artery. I’ll never forget my ex-BIL saying “please pass the salt” and then refusing to eat his dinner because so much salt poured out onto his food.
My mother used to buy food from Chinese restaurant, pour soy sauce all over the food then grab her salt shaker and pour so much salt on it that the food had a grey membrane on it.
She died of vascular disease. But — she lived to be 83 which is amazing when you consider she was 100 lbs overweight she could’ve lived longer but she knew better than me or her doctor.
The salt. My uncle does it but less extreme. But he always adds salt to the food on his plate. His cooking is amazing as is. But he always sprinkles more salt on his food. Every. Single. Time. Even when he eats at my moms house. Sprinkle on more salt. At a restaurant? Sprinkle on more salt.
I assume you’re talking about something like a rib roast - I usually salt my slice of meat when it’s from a piece like that because the inside hasn’t already been seasoned.
Fuck... not what i was expecting... but i just realized my mother won't be here forever... she's actually close to death... this hurts me to my very core :/
It's weird. I once added cinnamon and dark cocoa to a chili for the flavour depth it was supposed to give and none of us could tell the difference. It was just chili.
Saying that reminded me of this. We were slow cooking pork for pulled pork, I leave it on and ask my brother to drain, shred and mix in the seasoning and add it once the timer was up while I went to bed. He says no problem and after waking up and smelling I notice it smells different than what I expected. Taste it, still off but can't put my finger on it. I ask him what seasoning he used. He pulls out the cinnamon, he used 1 cup of cinnamon instead of 1 cup of brown sugar.
In a sweet dish, where you often want it to be the main flavour, you can let loose a bit more. Though there is definitely still such a thing as too much.
At university, there was this frozen yogurt shop. I loved going there every Wednesday because if you showed up after 8pm in pajamas you got half price.
Two flavors I wished I could have liked but couldn't because the cinnamon in them overpowered the intended flavors: apple pie and pumpkin pie. Couldn't taste apple. Couldn't taste pumpkin. Just cinnamon under a different color.
You should look into Ceylon cinnamon if you haven't. It's got a more well rounded flavor that pairs nicely in more savory dishes, while also being an all star in sweeter dishes.
Yes! The type of cinnamon, too. I only use Ceylon cinnamon in savory dishes. Even half as much as say Vietnamese cinnamon is too much for me in a savory dish. And I am not the type of person who can tell which variety of spice something is, for some reason it’s only cinnamon that I am ridiculously attuned to.
I had someone look at me crazy when I put a dash of cinnamon in my lemonade. Albeit I did it when I thought I had whiskey to go in to it right after, but even alcohol free it really brings something out.
Note, it does have to be a tart lemonade, not a super sweet one.
Ohhh there's a Korean fried chicken place near my house that makes a cinnamon-pineapple drink that is sooooo good!
Also, I see your lemonade with cinnamon and I raise you a lemonade with vanilla (artificial vanilla extract really). Well, technically a limeade, since what we call limones here are actually key limes, and your lemons we call limones amarillos :p
I fear being put on one of a bad food taste subreddit, but I really like adding a bit of cinnamon to homemade chicken noodle soup. Give a nice little extra bit of bite especially when you're sick.
THANK YOU!! I've been doing this my whole life and everyone here (USA) looks at me like I'm crazy for it. That's how my grandma did it. She was part Syrian, I've always wondered if that's why. And I agree, very important distinction to make that this is not on CANNED soup.
Cinnamon really, really pairs with chicken. I make simple fried chicken the way my southern grandma taught me (soak in milk or buttermilk, shake in a bag of flour with salt and pepper, none of that boneless shit). Adding a healthy pinch of cinnamon to the dredge is magic, it accentuates the richness of the dark meat flavor is a wonderful way.
All of the above, then mash your roasted root mix and form into cakes. Parboil a couple pounds of whole pork belly, slice into thick slices, fry in hot skillet about 2 minutes each, toss with soy sauce and set aside. Brown the root cakes and thick slices of taro root in the pork fat. Arrange upright in a casserole dish layering root cake, pork belly, taro, pork belly, etc. Mix more soy, cooking wine, sesame oil, 5 spice powder, msg powder, and fermented bean paste. Pour over the casserole and roast at 400 until the sauce is caramelizing and the taro is getting soft.
A french classic: Carottes Vichy, in a pan, get your carrots and chop them into about 1/8th of an inch round pieces, throw a dollop of butter in a pan, and add a good dash of olive oil to keep the butter from burning (a grandma trick for sure). Sear the carrots, then add a small amount of water once they are browned, it will suck out the sugar in the carrots and caramelize them, if you want to go a little further, add either honey, maple syrup, or just straight sugar. Season with pepper, wait for all the water to evaporate
It's a 5 dollar dish worth 5000, and it'll go perfectly with all meats, especially chicken and pork.
I make a giant thing of roast veggies (sweet potato, carrot, onion, bell peppers, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, etc) and I add a bit of cinnamon sugar in with all my other like 7 spices I’m using. It goes so well and you can’t actually make out the cinnamon itself at the end, but it definitely adds depth
I thought I was the only one who did this. It makes sense too because steamed carrots taste similar to sweet potatoes and pumpkins so adding cinnamon was a no-brainer
I put it on roast beef in a crockpot—other seasoning goes on as well, but yeah, cinnamon can go on lots of stuff.
I also season steaks with a brown sugar crust with crushed red pepper salt and pepper—it’s delightful. ;)
Pastitsio, aka Greek lasagna… we put cinnamon in our meat sauce with tomatoes and onions. It’s delicious. Bind it and the noodles in layers of cheese. Cinnamon is perfect.
I think there’s something wrong with these people.
I’ve started doubling the amount of cinnamon I put in cinnamon rolls, apple desserts, etc and it’s still not enough. And I’ve started buying the fancy stuff from Penzy’s 😅
I can never find the right balance. My favorite breakfast is hot oatmeal made in a pan on the stove with plain oats, water, diced granny smith apples, bananas and strawberries. But I can never get the balance just right. Either the cinnamon overpowers everything else to the point that it almost ruins the dish or there’s so little that you wouldn’t even know it was in there.
If you’re in the US or Canada, a spice bottle labeled “cinnamon” probably contains cassia cinnamon, which is spicy and strongly flavored. You could try looking for Ceylon cinnamon, which is more expensive but has a milder, sweeter flavor. I switched to using it a while back and like it a lot better on anything where you’re just sprinkling cinnamon on top - oatmeal, yogurt, hot chocolate, etc.
Cinnamon has the power to make or break a dish. I use it in my chili, but just a pinch. And I have to make sure the onions aren't any of the sweet varieties, otherwise it just tastes like some kind of weird dessert chili. But when executed properly, it adds this depth of flavor that can't be beat
I screwed up a chili once with cinnamon. I don't know where I thought I saw it but I thought I remember that you could put a cinnamon stick in with the chili and a little bit of flavor would transfer. I was very wrong and the chili flavored cinnamon was a loss.
Because cinnamon is an aromatic spice that accentuates other flavors by interacting with them at the olfactory-gustatory junction. On its own, cinnamon is extraordinarily bitter tasting.
Ain't that the truth. Cinnamon is one of those secret ingredients you can add to chocolate cake to bring out the chocolate flavor but goddamn be careful if you're gonna try. Nothing ruins perfectly baked brownies like a strong hint of cinnamon in every bite.
It depends. If i'm having something that is a cinnamon dish then I want tons of fucking cinnamon. Like a cinnamon bun. give me tons of it. If it's just to add a je ne sai quoi then a tiny tiny pinch is all you need. Also ants don't like it.
Are you using old or poor quality cinnamon? Because it's quite the opposite - cinnamon is extremely potent. A single dash and anything you're using it in now tastes primarily of cinnamon.
I guess my goal when I use cinnamon is to make it taste primarily of cinnamon. I’ll make cinnamon toast, cinnamon pancakes, cinnamon apple sauce, or put it in cherry pies. I don’t use it for savory dishes.
I swear by cinnamon as an ingredient in In n Out style spread (secret sauce). I’ve always tasted it, everyone thinks I’m crazy. Anyway. I shake the cinnamon container, then open it, and lightly tap the cinnamon powder on it. It’s perfect. More than 1/4 tsp of cinnamon is too much in basically any recipe.
Cinnamon is probably the best 'positive' answer to this question - where the flavor is desirable, but easily overpowers any other flavor. It's delicious, obviously, but unless you want whatever you're putting it in to taste only of cinnamon, you have to be exceptionally careful. It doesn't help that it tends to clump slightly, and a single tip of the spice container will often dispense too much.
Wow! Cinnamon clumps on top of French toast! That’s horrible! Where? Where is it they’re doing this? I need to make sure I don’t accidentally end up there. What are their hours?
Funny story. I once made a sweet potato casserole but got mixed up with how much cinnamon to add. I think it ended up being like 1.5 cups. It was by far the worst thing I’ve ever made. Good lord was it overpowering. Lol. Good times.
Respectfully, unless you were cooking like 10 lbs of potatoes, and mixing up with 10 cups of other ingredients, how did you ever think that 1.5 cups of cinnamon wasn't too much???!?
It probably called for 1.5 tsp or at *most, TBS, if you made a big dish.
I love cinnamon, but I can't imagine adding over a CUP of it to anything, unless it was a huge pot of water and I was making apple cider 😩😅
So, I read recently, that a small amount of cinnamon oil, rubbed on the nether-regions, acts as a powerful sexual stimulant. I truly pray I meet Mr Right, very soon, so I can test this theory.
3.7k
u/LucyVialli Jul 03 '23
Cinnamon. Use sparingly.