Volatile Oils – Spices

 

Volatile Oils – Spices

 

A spice refers to a vegetable substance which is used for adding flavour and sometimes colour to foods. Spices are obtained from various parts of plants, such as the flowers, seeds, leaves, bark and fruits. The flavour and aromatic nature of spices are caused from the volatile oils contained within the various parts of the plants. These oils may contain up to several hundred chemical compounds, and when combined, this mixture gives different spices their characteristic flavours and aromas. 

In ginger, for example, these flavours are apparent in the fresh form. However, many spices change, or develop, their flavour only upon drying and grinding. When the whole spice is broken or ground, volatile oils are released. However, over time the flavour and aroma will dissipate and this is why spices have much greater flavour and aromas when newly ground.



An example of how different volumes of volatile oils can impact taste is in cinnamon. Cinnamon powder is formed from the ground bark from a tree, with < 5% of each cinnamon stick being responsible for all of the flavour. In the case of cinnamon, 80% of the volatile oils are cinnamaldehyde, with many others also combined which add to the flavour. The complexity of these mixtures is the reason why many artificial flavourings struggle to represent the true taste of natural spice.



                                                            Cinnamaldehyde

The composition of cinnamon varies depending on the harvest, temperature, geographical location and plant species. Therefore, the cinnamon that you buy will smell and taste slightly differently between batches. The two most common types of cinnamon are cassia cinnamon and ‘true’ cinnamon (it’s real name is verum, and verum = true), however in Europe you will likely only find cassia cinnamon in the supermarkets. Cassia cinnamon is great for baking, with true cinnamon being much milder in flavour and smell, making it better for more subtle dishes or drinks.

There are also Korintje and Saigon as other types of cinnamon. Korintje cinnamon contains 3% volatile oil, whereas Saigon cinnamon contains between 4 – 6% volatile oil, making a great distinction in the flavours between these two varieties.


Other spices with high percentages of volatile oils include, but are not limited to, peppercorns, coriander, cardamon, cloves and turmeric. The oils within spices are much more soluble in fat and oil than in water. When cooking with spices, heating them up in oil before adding any other liquid parts to the dish, will help to release much more flavour than if they are added later. This will also help to distribute the flavour much more efficiently in the finished dish than if they are added to the liquid component or at the end.


Happy cooking!

- Alice 

Comments

  1. JeanieMarch 22, 2021 at 4:15 PM

    Might be time to clear out the spice cupboard and get some fresh stuff in!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BridgetApril 19, 2021 at 1:16 PM

      If you do Jean, go to an Asian shop and buy bags of spices, much much cheaper and probably fresher than the wee jars in supermarkets.

      Delete
  2. MargaretMarch 23, 2021 at 11:01 AM

    Great Alice, love the first picture!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Four Idols

Image
  Francis Bacon was an English scholar and philosopher who lived from 1561 To 1626. Amongst other things he wrote and thought about thinking.   I was Googling “idols” and Francis Bacon’s Four Idols kept cropping up, so I read a bit about them and it seemed very difficult and complicated. Then I kept on reading about them and actually it’s not that difficult, in fact I think it’s really interesting.   As I said, Francis Bacon thought about thinking and, long before the birth of modern psychology, he understood that the human mind doesn’t always reason correctly. He argued that this fact needed to be understood before new ideas could be developed.   He advocated using inductive reasoning and experiments to gain insight and to prove or disprove a theory.   He wrote a book called Novum Organum and in it he outlined the Four Idols which (I think) basically described four major errors in mental processing that result in obstacles to new and innovative thinkin...
Read more
Image
  Propagation, oo-oo-oo Propagation Propagation's what you need, If you want to plant a seed, make a rose bush or a reed, Propagation’s what you need! If you’d like to make new roots, or grow some tasty fruits, Propagation’s what you need! If you want to grow a plant, but think that you can’t, Oo-oo propagation's what you need! Do you want to be a propagate-er, Ooooo!!! For those of a certain age, you may have broken into song. Memories of Roy Castle and the McWhirter brothers on Record Breakers have been (dare I say it?) propagated in your mind!   Plants for free! There are lots of different ways in which plants can be propagated; the most common is by sowing seeds, after all, this is how it is usually done in nature. Because seed production relies on flowers producing seed by combining male pollen with female ovule, the resulting seed may produce a plant with different coloured flowers from the mother plant’s, leaves might be larger or smaller, ...
Read more