Cinnamon

Cinnamomum · dalchini

The warm bark of a feast — and usually not the one you think.

What it is

Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of a tree, rolled into quills, warm and sweet. An honest distinction most jars hide: most of what South Asian cooking uses is cassia — a harder, darker, stronger bark — rather than the delicate 'true' cinnamon of Sri Lanka. Both are sold as cinnamon.

Where it comes from

True cinnamon comes chiefly from Sri Lanka; cassia from China, Indonesia and India. In the region's warm-spice cooking the robust cassia is usual and appropriate — it stands up to slow gravies where fine Ceylon cinnamon would be lost.

What it's called

Cinnamon · dalchini (Hindi). The two barks are true/Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) and cassia (Cinnamomum cassia and relatives).

In the kitchen

A stick or two goes whole into biryani, pulao and rich gravies, perfuming the pot and lifted out before serving; ground cinnamon joins garam masala and sweets. In savoury cooking the sturdier cassia is the right tool.

What we know about the claims

Cassia contains coumarin, which matters only for someone eating large daily amounts of the ground spice — a real but narrow caution, irrelevant to the odd stick in a curry. Otherwise an everyday warm spice.

Choosing and buying

Sticks and ground in every shop (UK and US). For curries, ordinary cassia 'cinnamon' is correct; buy Ceylon quills if you want the finer, sweeter bark for baking.