The Greek historian Herodotus (484-425 BCE) provided some interesting information about cinnamon. He wrote: “The Arabians say that large birds bring those dry sticks called cinnamon for their nests, which are built with clay on precipitous mountains that no man can scale. To surmount this difficulty, they [the Arabs] have invented the following artifice: having cut up into large pieces the limbs of dead oxen and other beasts of burden, they lay them near the nests and retire to a distance. The birds fly down and carry off the joints to their nests, which are not strong enough to support the weight of the meat and fall to the ground. Then the men come up and gather the cinnamon, and in this manner it reaches other countries.”

Obviously Herodotus had fallen prey to an ingenious marketing campaign. Cinnamon was so highly prized and exorbitantly priced in the ancient world that it was regarded as a gift fit for monarchs and even an offering fit for gods. The Egyptians used it in embalming while the Romans used it in perfume and as funerary incense. Emperor Nero was so devastated at his wife’s death that he shocked everyone by burning a whole year’s supply of cinnamon at her funeral. Meanwhile the Arabs, the middlemen who were handling the spice trade, continued to keep its source shrouded in mystery to protect their monopoly.

What was the secret source of the fragrant inner bark of Cinnamomum trees? It was an island located in the Indian Ocean which the Arabs called Sarandib and we call Sri Lanka. Although the island still supplies the world with the sweet and spicy sticks, the top cinnamon producers today are China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Madagascar.

And the open secret concerning the cinnamon we use today is that most of it is not actually cinnamon. It is in fact cassia, which is derived from species of trees so closely related to the real thing that it is approved for sale under the label of cinnamon in many international markets. “True cinnamon” continues to grow in its native home, Sri Lanka. It is lighter in colour, sweeter to taste, and twice the price of “regular cinnamon”.

But the best use of cinnamon is made in the kitchen, where it is used to enrich the flavour of desserts, drinks and savoury dishes. Baking with cinnamon is particularly rewarding; it has the blissful effect of producing a warm scent that fills the kitchen and the home.

Called dalchini in Urdu, cinnamon can be found in recipes for traditional meat korma, pasanday (beef fillet stew), qeema (minced meat), muttar pulao (green peas and rice), and kitchree (lentils and rice). Moreover, it is a key element in garam masala, that ubiquitous spice mix that graces every Pakistani kitchen. Its partners in the mix are fennel (saunf), cardamom (illaichi), black peppercorn (kali mirch), clove (laung) and nutmeg (jaiful).

Cinnamon is also a common feature in Turkish, Arabic and Persian cuisine. Moroccans are particularly well known for making generous use of it in their tagine-based cuisine. Named after the clay pot that is used in the traditional method of slow cooking, it comprises delicious stews that are a luxurious combination of meat, vegetables and fruits enhanced with an abundance of warm spices such as cinnamon, cumin (zeera) and coriander (dhania). Some popular tagine combinations are chicken with almonds and prunes, lamb with plums and eggs, and chickpeas with eggplant and olives.

Spanish colonists are credited with introducing cinnamon to the New World, especially Mexico where it was blended with chocolate to create utterly decadent and deliciously thick drinking chocolate. Cinnamon is the crucial ingredient in a long list of Mexican culinary delights including mole sauce for enchiladas, the creamy drink horchata, corn-based steamed tamales, bread pudding called capirotada, and traditional wedding cookies. In fact, so vital is it in Mexican cooking that Mexico is the world’s largest importer of cinnamon.

One would think that this honour should belong to the United States, where the booming food industry appears to thrive on cinnamon. From providing flavour for chewing gum and candy to playing a star role in packaged breakfast cereals as well as freshly made oatmeal, cinnamon is everywhere in the USA. Apple pie would be lost without it, cinnamon buns would cease to exist, and those hot mini doughnuts sold in amusement parks would be nothing without a generous sprinkle of cinnamon-sugar mixture. Also, it has become the norm for coffee shops to offer patrons cinnamon powder, along with cream and sugar, to flavour their cups of joe.

Slice of cinnamon raisin bread, anyone? Toasted and buttered.