Methyl cinnamate
Also written (E)-methyl cinnamate, E-methyl cinnamate, methyl trans-cinnamate
Quick answer
The sweet, fruity, strawberry-and-balsam aroma compound that makes up almost all of strawberry gum’s leaf oil and half of ishpingo’s — and the reason ishpingo tastes sweeter than the cinnamon it is sold as.
What it does
Methyl cinnamate smells fruity and balsamic, of strawberry with a cinnamon warmth; it is the ester of cinnamic acid and a close chemical relative of cinnamaldehyde, which is why the two sit together so naturally. In strawberry gum it is essentially the whole aroma — between ninety-four and ninety-nine per cent of the oil in studied populations. In ishpingo it shares the cupule oil roughly equally with cinnamaldehyde, and the balance between the two is what separates ishpingo’s rounder, sweeter warmth from cinnamon bark.
How it behaves when cooked
Four properties of the molecule, and what they mean at the stove.
- Volatility
- moderate
- Fat solubility
- high
- Water solubility
- low
- Heat stability
- moderate
An aromatic ester of moderate volatility, so it survives baking and a short simmer but fades with long boiling and with months in an opened jar. It carries well in fat — butter, cream, a biscuit dough — which is where strawberry gum and anise myrtle are usually used. In practice it is handled like cinnamon: infused into a hot liquid and strained, or ground into a batter by the pinch, and added nearer the end of a long-cooked fruit dish rather than at the start.
Spices that carry it
Recorded on the compound rather than on each spice, so the two cannot disagree.
- Strawberry gumPrincipal component
Among the highest concentrations known in any plant; the whole of the aroma.
- IshpingoMajor component
About a third of the flower-cup oil, alongside a similar share of cinnamaldehyde.
Not to be confused with
Compounds a reader is likely to take for this one, and why they differ.
Cinnamaldehyde
The aldehyde of cinnamon and cassia, and a close relative. Cinnamaldehyde is hot and sharp; methyl cinnamate is sweet and fruity. Ishpingo carries both, cinnamon almost only the first.
Questions this page answers
- what is methyl cinnamate
- why does strawberry gum smell of strawberries
- methyl cinnamate in spices