Spices Indian Cooking Ingredients

Cassia Bark (Dal Chini)

Cassia is a dark brown tree bark, it's solid, thicker and darker than cinnamon. Although it has some similar flavour notes to cinnamon it has its own distinct aromatic that is stronger and sweeter tasting with a musky aroma.


Using Cassia Bark (Dal Chini) in Indian Cooking

Cassia bark is related to cinnamon but it isn't the same. The two ingredients can be interchangeable but they do have a different emphasis on the flavour they infuse into your dish. Cassia adds a sweeter, milder flavour whereas cinnamon has a stronger more harsh, hotter flavour.

Cassia originates in South East Asia and is often called Chinese cinnamon. Most of the worlds cinnamon quils are produced in Sri Lanka.

Cassia looks more like a thick outer bark of a tree and is darker in colour. Cinnamon is a lighter beige colour and made up of wafer thin quills. Cassia tends to be cheaper than cinnamon as it's cheaper to produce. For Indian dishes I will tend to use cassia rather then cinnamon.

It tends to be used in desserts as well as a number of savoury and rice dishes. Predominately used the Korma and Pasanda it gives the very subtle sweetness that these dishes are known for.

There is one variety called Cinnamomum which produces 'true cinnamon' most other cinnamon comes from related species that are also refereed to as cassia.

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Comments

Comments (2)

  • Soudy Goff

    21 April 2018 at 08:14 |
    Hi Hari,
    Thank you so much for your amazing recipes - everyone I've tried has been delicious!
    Quick question - I'm living in Italy where ingredients are hard to come by. Can I substitute cinnamon for cassia bark?
    Thanks

    reply

    • Hari Ghotra

      04 October 2018 at 14:28 |
      Hi Goff Yes you can! Let me know what you think!

      reply

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