Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Cassia along with all the recipes employing Cassia presented on this site, with 45 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cassia recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Cassia as a major wild food ingredient.

Cassia (also sometimes known as Indonesian cinnamon) is the bark of Cinnamomum aromaticum (syn Cinnamomum cassia) is an evergreen tree native to southern China and mainland Southeast Asia west to Myanmar. Like its close relative, Cinnamon (see below), it is used primarily for its aromatic bark, which is used as a spice.



The Cassia tree grows to 10-15 m tall, with greyish bark, and hard elongated leaves 10-15 cm long, that have a decidedly reddish colour when young. Whole branches and small trees are harvested for cassia bark, unlike the small shoots used in the production of Cinnamon; this gives cassia bark a much thicker and rougher texture than that of true cinnamon. Cassia provides a much stronger flavour than cinnamon but because it is formed from the whole bark it is much tougher and more difficult to powder than cinnamon.



Cassia bark (both powdered and in whole, or 'stick' form) is used as a flavouring agent, for candies, desserts, baked goods, and meat. Due to its stronger flavour it is specified in many curry recipes, where cinnamon is less suitable and is an essential ingredient of true Chinese curries. It should be noted that almost all 'cinnamon' sold in North America is actually cassia and not true cinnamon. In Europe it is more difficult to find cassia, though it is now becoming available in more speciazied spice and wholefood shops. It is also possible to make a tea from the bark and I often make an infusion from black Indian tea, cassis, star anise, green cardamom and lemon peel.