Cassia buds ✦

Boutons de casse

What it is

These are the flower buds of the cassia tree, picked before they open and dried until they look like small cloves still on the stalk. Rome used them, medieval Europe bought them by the pound and nineteenth-century American kitchens turned them into sweet cassia bud pickles — then the trade moved to bark and the bud all but vanished.

In the kitchen

Use them whole, six to eight for a litre of braise or mulled wine, and fish them out before serving. They give the warmth of cinnamon without the chalky texture ground bark leaves behind.

Goes with

Apple Quince Plum Pork Star anise Cider vinegar Black pepper Ginger

Same species

Cassia Cinnamon

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