FOOD ACCESSORIES AND SPICES 



227 



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irritant. Although most commonly used in the ground form, 

 mustard is frequently used in the whole seed form in the prepar- 

 ing of certain types of pickles. 



Our common cinnamon is obtained from a tree member of 

 the Laurel Family and is native to Ceylon, although now grown 

 in India, Burma, and Malaya, as 

 well as in parts of the West Indies 

 and South America. In the culti- 

 vation of cinnamon, young trees are 

 cut back close to the ground and 

 made to sprout from the roots, or 

 produce suckers. These are fast grow- 

 ing, long and slender, and are cut 

 twice a year. The bark is carefully 

 peeled from these young, whiplike 

 stems and scraped, after which it is 

 rolled tightly and dried for shipment 

 (fig. 161). Whole cinnamon, or cin- 

 namon sticks, which are used in pre- 

 paring some kinds of pickles, consists 

 of short pieces of the rolled bark. 

 More common is the ground cin- 

 namon, which is one of the most 

 popular of spices used in foods. In 

 addition to its ordinary cooking uses, 

 cinnamon is widely used in the manufacture of candy, chewing 

 gum, incense, perfumes and soaps. Medicinally, it is sometimes 

 used as an astringent or antiseptic, but more often simply as a 

 flavoring. 



The GINGER plant is a perennial herb belonging to the Mono- 

 cot plant family of that name. This family includes several other 

 spice plants such as turmeric and cardamom, but ginger is the 

 outstanding member of the group. Ginger is obtained from the 

 thick rhizomes, or underground stems, which serve also as a 

 means of propagating and spreading the plant (fig. 162). Due 

 to the ease of dissemination, coupled with the fact that ginger 

 will grow in any moist tropical climate, it is cultivated over a 

 much greater area than most spices. Today its cultivation is 



Fig. 161. — Cinnamon is a 

 tree member of the Laurel 

 Family; whole cinnamon con- 

 sists of rolled pieces of bark from 

 young twigs. 



