Cinnamon Bark

***Cassia bark is stronger in flavour than to True Cinnamon. This cassia is also known as “Chinese Cinnamon”. ***Use broken into both Indian, Chinese & South East Asian cuisine. ***Cassia bark is most suited to strong, spicy dishes. It is common in many curries and braised meat dishes, adding an interesting, bitter sweet flavour to the mixture of other spices and herbs.*** For curries, add the bark sticks right at the start to give the flavours time to work their way into the dish. You can also grind the sticks up if you like, though it’s not necessary.*** The word cinnamon, the genus name, probably came from either the Arabic or the Hebrew language, but the species name cassia is from the Greek kassia, meaning to strip off the bark. Its use in Chinese medicine goes back to at least 2700 B.C.E. where it is referred to in several herbal formularies. According to traditional Chinese medicine, it acts to help the body’s “fire” and to help “warm” the kidneys and spleen. It is, however, primarily known for the familiar flavor it imparts to any dish that it comes in contact with.