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All scents of Christmas
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When I was little and young, Christmas had a plethora of scents for me.
From cloves, vanilla, cinnamon to needles on the Christmas tree. Now I am finding what the Christmas spices
can bring to our health condition together with the Christmas mood.
Here the characteristics of the mostly used spices for this festive time of the year which are tipical for whole middle Europe, I think.
Anise
The loin of anise comes from the Mediterranean and Asia Minor and is one of the oldest spices. Its effects on the human body are well known for centuries. Anise promotes expectoration, has a positive effect on the digestive tract, helps with flatulence, and chewing seeds prevents bad breath. At Christmas, we bake anise from it, it is added to gingerbread or anise cubes, which taste great as candy, but can also serve as tea pastries. It can also be added to liqueurs or medicinal teas.
Star anise
Its taste is very reminiscent of anise, as it has a very spicy sweetish taste. Due to its shape, it ranks among the most beautiful spices of Christmas, and therefore it is widely used not only as a component of recipes, but also as a decorative element. It is a part of gingerbread spice, but it must not be missing in star anise candy with orange icing. Like most Christmas cookies, mulled wine tastes great, and a drink made from star anise, honey and cinnamon warms the whole body. Star anise contains anethol = anise camphor. Anethole has potent antimicrobial properties, against bacteria, yeasts, and fungi.
Clove
Dried calyx with clove root bud got its name in our country mainly for its form. It is used to spice up Christmas cookies, but also other sweet foods, rice or meat. For its local anesthetic and antiseptic effects, it is widely used even in dentistry. Due to its pronounced aroma, it is often part of a mixture of different spices, but when grinding, it quickly loses its specific aroma. At Christmas, it must not be missing in mulled wine, punch or other hot drinks. However, it also has its place in Christmas baking, as it is one of the ingredients of gingerbread spice. It is also excellent in clove asterisks with jam or nuts. Long-used in traditional medicine, there is evidence that clove oil containing eugenol is effective for toothache pain and other types of pain.
Cinnamon
Like star anise, cinnamon is a very decorative spice, which is especially in demand at Christmas. Especially if we are talking about unground rolled up tubes of cinnamon bark Ceylon. In stores, however, you often get less aromatic cinnamon, which is also coarser and less pronounced in taste. Therefore, try next time to see if the country of origin is indicated on the package. Cinnamon is not only very tasty and used in gingerbread, cinnamon cookies, nuts and pretzels, it also tastes great in coffee, tea, hot chocolate or mulled wine or punch. Its great feature is that it can warm the body and acts as an antiseptic. Cinamon lower glucose in your body . There are more species sold as cinamon -
Vanilla
Vanilla rolls, Linz sweets and all other sweets usually have one thing in common, namely vanilla sugar. It simply belongs to Christmas, both in taste and smell. Be careful when buying ... true vanilla is quite expensive and it is often replaced by vanillin.Most artificial vanilla products contain vanillin, which can be produced synthetically from lignin. The main species harvested for vanilla is V. planifolia. Although it is native to Mexico, it is now widely grown throughout the tropics. Indonesia and Madagascar are the world's largest producers. True vanilla for its antifungal effects is used to treat mold and fungal diseases, but also skin problems-dermatitis or eczema.
Wishing you Christmas full of flavours and happiness
Margaret
