Which cinnamon to use in savory dishes?

[patrickamory]

As I'm sure everyone here knows, there are three major families of the spice commonly called cinnamon: Ceylon cinnamon (cinnamomum verum), Indonesian cinnamon (cinnamomum burmanii) and cassia or Chinese cinnamon (cinnamomum cassia).

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cinnamomum_Verum_vs_Cinnamomum_Burmannii.jpg

 

(in the link above, Ceylonese cinnamon quill on the left, Indonesian cinnamon stick on right)

 

My question is which cinnamon to use in SAVORY applications outside the country of origin. I believe that Ceylonese cinnamon, which comes in flaky quills, is the norm in Moroccan and Mexican cuisine? Should it be used in northern Indian cooking, or should Indonesian be used there?

 

And is Indonesian cinnamon the norm throughout Southeast Asia - e.g. in Malay or Nyonya cooking, where one might expect Chinese or Vietnamese (Saigon cinnamon) instead?

 

So many recipes just call for "cinnamon" and would be nice to have a better guide of which sort to use.

 

(Not interested in baking / sweet uses for the purposes of this thread.)

 

 

[Smithy]

For what it's worth, the cinnamon I used to get in Egyptian spice markets looked more like the Indonesian cinnamon on the right in your photo. If I asked its source, I don't remember the answer.

[liuzhou]

99% of cinnamon sold in the USA is actually cassia, no matter how it is labelled.

 

True cinnamon, the Ceylon variety, is much more refined and subtle in taste, but possibly more often used for the baking you (and I) don't want. I disagree with the assessment that it is too subtle for other uses, though. In the UK, it is standard. In fact, I believe it is illegal to sell cassia as cinnamon.

 

So-called Indonesian is OK, too but not so flavoursome as Ceylon. I wouldn't say it is the norm in SE Asia. Cassia is. (And it isn't from Indonesia. The Latin name is more indicative of its origin.)

 

There is a huge cassia tree right outside my window and I can smell its bark all day and night.

Edited May 26, 2014 by liuzhou (log)

[Chris Hennes]

It's true that in Mexican cooking, when a recipe (from Mexico) calls for cinnamon they are probably talking about Ceylon cinnamon (cinnamomum verum). I'd suggest that basically any recipe that originates in the US is talking about cassia, since that's by far the most commonly-available here. I'll let others with more expertise speak to other regions.

[patrickamory]

liuzhou, thank you - very useful. Wikipedia does claim that "Cinnamomum burmanii is native to Southeast Asia and Indonesia." By pointing to the Latin name, are you suggesting that it more commonly comes from Burma?

 

I'm able to find Ceylonese cinnamon here in the US, but the other kind is far more common.

 

The naming conventions are incredibly confusing - if Cinnamomum burmanii is cassia, then what is Chinese cassia, otherwise known as C. cassia?

[Bill Klapp]

A Penzey's catalog will give you a practical education on the topic. I find the Vietnamese variety too strong for most applications...

[patrickamory]

Thanks, I googled, and this page is very clear on the distinction between the two main types, and where they come from:

 

http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeyscinnamon.html

 

CASSIA is the hard sticks native to China, Vietnam and Indonesia, and most familiar in the US

CEYLONESE is the soft quills used in North Africa, Mexico and parts of Europe

 

So here's my question: which type of cinnamon is appropriate to use in North Indian, Thai, Malay, and Burmese dishes that call for "cinnamon"? Few of my cookbooks are clear on this.

[huiray]

Not sure about the Northern Indian stuff; but for E/SE Asians dishes that I cook I tend to use cassia cinnamon when I do use it in them.  Having said that, there are (as you have found) different varieties of cassia cinnamon. :-)  I don't particularly distinguish them by exact regional derivation.  I tend to look for and buy the thinner, smaller quills that roll in on themselves from both sides, as opposed to the ones that roll in from one side only - which seems to be the characteristics also of the BIG, thick-layer-bark quills which I tend to use last or when I run out of the thinner smaller ones. The big thick ones I also find tend to leave a noticeably "woody" taste in, say, something like a pot of Bak Kut Teh if I leave the sticks in when leaving the pot overnight (i.e. allowing the sticks to continue to infuse the soup) (perhaps not surprising) besides intensifying the cinnamon-y taste as well, so I typically fish them out after cooking is completed.  The small thin ones I can leave in.  As for "intensity of taste"/sweetness/etc I judge the overall effect of the dish with all the various components (I would seldom - nay, never - use just cinnamon by itself in a dish as the only flavoring/spicing agent, for example) and add stuff as needed including gula melaka, rock sugar, mirin etc etc (w.r.t. the "sweetness" component, for example); or even remove a stick of cinnamon if I find the dish is getting a little "heavy" on the aroma as the dish is cooking along...  All this is my personal practice, others may do different things.

 

I can't remember the last time I bought powdered cinnamon although I'm sure I must have done it at least once in the far distant past.

[patrickamory]

Thanks huiray. Reading up online I'm finding that Northern Indian sites recommend cassia in recipes.

 

Ceylonese seems to be reserved for dishes from Sri Lanka (as you would expect), and possibly in Southern India, though I'm having trouble confirming the latter. I wonder whether there is a cassia/ceylonese border running across India at some point, like the butter/olive oil border in Europe?