Tree In Alaska, the sap of the sweet birch ("Betula lenta") is made into a syrup with a sugar content of 67%. Sweet birch sap is more dilute than maple sap; a hundred litres are required to make one litre of birch syrup. Various parts of trees are used as spices. These include cinnamon, made from the bark of the cinnamon tree ("Cinnamomum zeylanicum") and allspice, the dried small fruits of the pimento tree ("Pimenta dioica"). Nutmeg is a seed found in the fleshy fruit of the nutmeg tree ("Myristica fragrans") and cloves are the unopened flower buds of the clove
Tempering (spices) Tempering (spices) Tempering is a cooking technique used in the cuisines of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, in which whole spices (and sometimes also other ingredients such as dried chillies, minced ginger root or sugar) are roasted briefly in oil or ghee to liberate essential oils from cells and thus enhance their flavours, before being poured, together with the oil, into a dish. Tempering is also practiced by dry roasting whole spices in a pan before grinding the spices. Tempering is typically done at the beginning of cooking, before adding the other ingredients for a curry or similar dish,