How come when cinnamon is prepared in a hot liquid it sometimes gets slimy?

Answer 1

It could be because there is a lot of fat in what you are cooking. Cinnamon is used, as I am sure you know, in even meat dishes and many sauces and not just for baking . It's not a good idea to add cinnamon to something hot, so take a measuring cup, add a little of the hot stock (or whatever you are using) and add your cinnamon and stir WITH A WISK and then add a little cold water and add to the bulk of your sauce. Marcy --- I found this page searching for the answer to the very same question, but this answer isn't it. It doesn't seem to be because of the fat content of the liquid. You can add cinnamon to a hot cup of tea and it will still turn into slime in the bottom of the cup. What I've found is that it doesn't happen with all types of cinnamon. Yes, there are three main types. The higher the oil content of the cinnamon used, the less likely it is to turn slimy. I bought a high-quality Vietnamese cinnamon from Spice Islands, and the effect disappeared until I finished it and bought some of the "regular" stuff, which cost half as much but the slime problem suddenly reappeared in my morning tea. You can tell the essential oil content of cinnamon just by looking at it - the more it clumps together, the more oil it has. Vietnamese cinnamon (also called Saigon cinnamon) has the highest essential oil content of any cinnamon in the world, as much as five times more (up to 5%) than even the best of any other kind. And a whopping 25% of that oil is the cinnamaldehyde that gives cinnamon its flavor. So, no more cheap powdered cinnamon (which here in the US isn't really cinnamon anyway, it's cassia) for me. -Dave D, Seattle WA

From what I have seen on a few websites, Vietnamese cinnamon is actually more closely related to cassia than it is to "true cinnamon," which is Ceylon (Sri Lanka) cinnamon. Furthermore, Vietnamese cinnamon seems to have the highest amounts of coumarin of any of the cinnamons (perhaps 400 times as much as Ceylon cinnamon, which has the lowest amount), probably because coumarin is fat-soluble, and Vietnamese cinnamon has the highest fat (oil) content. Coumarin is a substance that can damage the liver when consumed in large quantities. -David S, Monterey, CA