On Bark and Bite

Well, it is a bit after midnight, and I’ve a long day tomorrow, but somehow instead of going to sleep, what am I doing? Taking pictures of tree bark and blogging. The things I do for you, Dear Reader 🙂 …

Let me explain. I learned something the other day that sort of clears up a little mystery that has not really been at the front of my mind, to be honest, but just sort of off to the side, if you know what it mean. It has to do with one of my favorite spices, cinnamon. While it has been a bit of time since I’ve done an Asymptotia Goes To The Kitchen sort of post (which reminds me, I did almost do one about six weeks ago, and took photos and everything, but somehow it did not get written), you will surely have noticed that cinnamon is a spice that gets featured a lot in my culinary endeavours. I had, I am sure, noticed that cinnamon seems to vary a bit in its appearance and texture depending upon where I am, by which I mean that the type I recall in the UK is a bit different from what I get in the USA, (well, maybe slightly), and certainly different from the softer, flakier sort I remember from the Caribbean. But I never really tried to make something of this. It is just one of those things you notice but don’t really get bothered by enough to want to dig further.

Well, I accidentally found out that the reason they are different is because only one of them is actually true cinnamon! I happened to be on my way back from a long session of working in a cafe (the Silver Lake Intelligentsia, where I admit I sometimes go because the clientele don’t seem as pretentious as I recall, or maybe I’ve just drunk the Koolaid, got used to it, or become pretentious myself… Or perhaps it is just that they actually do know how to make a good macchiato, and it is very good indeed, reminding me somewhat of the cafe cortado I love and crave from my Madrid visits over the last year….) on The Project, and remembered that I’d run out of cinnamon for breakfast that morning (pin cut oatmeal, slow cooked, with nutmeg and cinnamon – try it!) and remembered further that the (relatively newly opened) Spice Station was nearby. So I popped in and had a little exchange with one of the sales people about spices and so forth, as you do in a store that sells nothing but, and she asked if I’d like some cassia bark instead of the cinnamon. I said no, I’d like my cinnamon please, but I would be happy to take some cassia bark too, for variety’s sake. It looked intriguing in its jar.

When I got it home I popped a bit into my mouth and chewed and found that it is harder than your usual cinnamon stick that you get in the USA, but the flavor is as strong, perhaps a tad stronger. I then decided to google around a bit, as you do these days, and learned that apparently the typical USA cinnamon sticks are actually cassia bark, presumably at an earlier stage than what is later harvested and called cassia bark, and that softer stuff I recall from the Caribbean is actually the true cinnamon. This seems to fit with the similar degree of hardness. (Fair warning: This is the result of a few minutes of googling, not an extensive research project.) They are all in the same family, of course, but are quite distinct.

I happen to have a special supply of the “proper” cinnamon (and nutmeg) that someone brought from the Caribbean to the UK, which eventually made its way to me here in the USA some time ago. (I get it out and use a little on very special occasions – usually when making a bit of hot chocolate from the precious but dwindling stick of homemade drinking chocolate that was similarly sourced [how I miss the days of my childhood when we used to make that from scratch… from the cacao tree to the cup!!]) I got some out, lined it up with some of the cassia bark (centre), and some of the standard “cinnamon” sticks (right), and took a photo (low light, so a bit blurry from hand holding) so that you can see the difference. click for a larger view. Interesting, no?

I feel I should have known about this before…

-cvj