[Sca-cooks] Whole to ground spice equivalents

[Stefan li Rous]

Avraham said:
> > Still hoping someone will take a shot at the cinnamon (stick vs.
> spoon)
> >
> > I still unpacking (or rather, ought to be, as the apt. is a forest of
> > stacks of packing boxes). Otherwise, i'd powder up a cinnamon stick
> > and measure it, but i don't know where my spice grinder is. I'm sure
> > it will surface *some* day.
>
> ISTR learning (from Alton Brown, I think) that cinnamon is one of the
> few spices best bought powdered, as it is nearly impossible to grind the
> bark adequately at home. I could be mistaken, of course, but I'm sure I
> heard that someplace.

Perhaps you are thinking of galengale rather than cinnamon.
Cinnamon sticks are pretty easy to grind up in a mortar and I
imagine, a spice grinder. I have howeever, seen multiple warnings that
galengale can break a spice grinder and is difficult to pulverize
in a mortar.

You might be interested in these files in the Florilegium:
cinnamon-msg      (23K)  5/19/00    Period cinnamon. Types of cinnamon.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PLANTS/cinnamon-msg.html
Cinnamon-Vari-art  (9K) 12/29/99    "Cinnamon Varieties" by Francesco Sirene.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PLANTS/Cinnamon-Vari-art.html
galangale-msg     (19K)  3/23/01    Period use of the spice galangale.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PLANTS/galangale-msg.html
--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****