The tastes of cinnamon and pepper, for example, are associated mostly with a single molecule, which upon heating, should diffuse into the air if anything, and the reactions you would expect of aldehydes would usually lead to products which are less volatile and fragrant.
If the final dish is going to be served hot, why lose the spices’ flavor by toasting them?
In: Chemistry
That “mostly” is doing a *lot* of lifting there. Yes, cinnamon’s central flavor constituent is cinnamaldehyde, but it contains a *lot* of terpenes and terpenoids, eugenol, camphor, cinnamic acid and its salts, etc etc. It contains a bunch of aminos and sugar, which of course under the Maillard reaction when heated.
Toasting spices doesn’t lose their flavor at all, it alters or augments them in a way generally found to be pleasing. Sure, some cinnamaldehyde is going to be lost, but a flavor with *less* cinnamaldehyde and *more* of the other constituents of cinnamon’s flavor is going to be more complex and interesting.
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