How to distinguish quality from counterfeit spices: Cilantro

ATTENTION! CHEAPLY INADGED RAW MATERIALS IN SEASONS - THIS IS DANGER FOR LIFE​

Cilantro (coriander) (Latin Coriándrum sátivum) is an annual herbaceous plant, the leaves of which have a slightly bitter taste and a sharp spicy aroma. It is very widely used in cooking as a seasoning.

Cilantro. Cooking application

Greenery of coriander is eaten fresh and dried. It gives the dishes a bright color, fresh aroma and pleasant taste. It is added at the end of cooking.

• It is a part of the curry seasoning, Indian mixture of massages, Ethiopian berber, Tunisian off.
• It is flavored with meat dishes, salads, soups, sauces, dishes from rice, pasta, fish and meat, puddings, jellies, syrups, drinks, marmalades and mousses.
• Without coriander it is impossible to cook Korean salads, Baltic spruce, spicy salting, Thuringian sausages, Azerbaijani shish kebabs, Turkish shish-kebabs, Abkhazian adzhika and Georgian sauces: tkemali, satsibeli.
• It is an indispensable ingredient of satsivi, lyulya-kebab, Georgian soup-harcho.

WHITH WHAT COMBINE CILANTRO?

Other seasonings: garlic, coriander (cilantro seeds), black pepper, chili, onion, lemongrass, nutmeg, ginger.
Products: meat, fresh and salted fish, poultry, seafood, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, broccoli, couscous.
Dishes: salads from fresh vegetables, sauces, any shish kebab (including - and at pickling), stewed chicken, baked in foil potatoes, vegetable stews.

Cilantro. Beneficial features

Cilantro is saturated with essential oils, vitamins, proteins, food fibers, antioxidants, mineral elements: potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium, iron, zinc, phosphorus, selenium.
Especially useful is essential oil of coriander, the cost of which is comparable to the price of gold. It is part of the drugs used in the treatment of eye diseases.

In consequence of this, coriander:

• accelerates metabolic processes;
• helps to get rid of excess weight;
• promotes the assimilation of heavy food;
• improves appetite;
• heals stomach diseases;
• destroys the unpleasant odor in the mouth;
• relieves of toothache;
• removes toxins and slags.

Cilantro. Quality indicators

In cilantro, the most valuable is the amount of essential oil.

Essential oils - are responsible for the characteristic taste and aroma of cilantro, the greatest concentration of essential oils is in the leaves of the plant.

In quality dried cilantro should be at least 0.3% essential oils.

Density - characterizes the degree of weediness of raw materials (mixing in the raw materials of stems, inflorescences and sticks).

Low density is an indicator of the high quality of raw materials. This means that for the raw materials only coriander leaves are used, without the addition of dried stems and sticks. Such raw materials are much more expensive than raw materials with high density.

To determine the density:

You need at least 100-200 grams of dried cilantro.

Step 1. A cilantro is poured into a 0.5 liter container (it is important not to carry out the "morning"),

Step 2. The amount of raw materials that fit into 0.5 liters is weighed and multiplied by 2. This will be the density index - gram per liter (g/l).

For cilantro, the optimal density, indicating the absence (or presence of a small amount) of stems and rods is a density of 115 g / l to 170 g / l maximum. The high density will be an indication of the use in the drying process not only of leaves, but also stems that do not contain essential oils and do not carry useful elements.

QUALITY OF DRY CILANTRO DEPENDS ON QUALITY OF FRESH LEAVES OF KINZA FROM WHICH HE IS MANUFACTURED!

For dried coriander, TM "Pripravka" uses leaves that are the most valuable when grinding coriander, so the share of essential oil of dried coriander is at least 1.5%, which corresponds to EU standards.

ATTENTION! FALSIFICATION OF QUALITY!

An unscrupulous producer uses a number of ways to falsify quality in order to reduce the cost of spicery.

The smaller the fraction of spice, the easier it is to falsify. Fine grind conceals the true composition of the spice, so it is almost impossible to determine the quality of raw materials.

The main ways of falsification of cilantro and cheapening of raw materials by UNDERSONABLE MANUFACTURERS:

• Adding leaves of parsley, as well as parts of other plants.
• The use of low-grade raw materials with the presence of a large number of stems, rods and inflorescences.
• Use of raw materials with the presence of:

1. Dust, dirt, glass, branches, stones, excrement of animals and larvae, remains of insects.
2. Metallic impurities

• Packaging of raw materials with unacceptable safety indices - exceeding the standards for microbiology, heavy metals, pesticides, etc.
• Use of raw materials with a dusty fraction. The fine fraction hides the true composition of the spice, therefore in quality raw materials no more than 5% of the fine (dusty) fraction is allowed.

Cilantro. Quality tests (not laboratory tests)

Quality dried coriander has a uniformly colored color of characteristic shades from green to dark green, homogeneous grinding, friability.
The leaves containing essential oils have a sweetish flavor, taste something similar to orange peel and cinnamon.

1. VISUAL EVALUATION OF DRY CILANTRO

It is necessary to pour a thin layer of dried coriander on the leaf and evaluate:

• Number of sticks, stems and inflorescences
• Presence / absence of fine dusty particles
• Color and saturation of dried cilantro leaves

2.ORGANOLEPTIC EVALUATION OF DRY CILANTRO

For organoleptic testing of raw materials, you need to grind a small amount of coriander between your fingers or hands so that the aroma of the spice opens completely.

3. DETERMINATION OF THE QUANTITY OF WRINKLES, STEPS AND YELLOW INCLUSIONS

Raw materials are scattered in the amount of 10 grams on the table and by hand using tweezers or another similar tool, yellow, damaged leaves, stems, sticks in raw materials are selected.
The smaller the number of selected sticks, stems and yellow inclusions in the raw material, the better the raw material. Quality cilantro will have a characteristic aroma and bitterish-spicy, slightly burning taste. Such a cilantro will be just enough pinch to give the dish the desired taste characteristics.

AND FOR WHAT ARE YOU PAYING MONEY?

Cilantro TM "Pripravka" passes 7 degrees of purification of raw materials:

• Culling out lots of raw materials that do not meet food safety standards
• Magnet - cleaning from magnetized metal impurities
• Vibration cleaner - cleaning of plastic, glass, garbage
• Destoner - cleaning of stones, earth
• Aspiration - cleaning from dust, insects
• Separation - removal of rotten, mold-damaged raw materials
• Metal Detector - cleaning from non-magnetized metal impurities

TM "PRIPRAVKA". FOOD SAFETY IS GUARANTEED!

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