Cinnamon Substitutes: What to Use, How Much, and When Cassia Needs Care

Out of cinnamon? For baking, reach for apple pie or pumpkin pie spice, since both already contain it. For a savory dish or spice mix, a small amount of allspice or nutmeg fills the gap. Just know that nothing here truly matches cinnamon: none of the substitutes whose chemistry we checked is built on cinnamaldehyde, the compound cinnamon mainly owes its flavor to. Most “cinnamon” sold in North America is cassia, a group of related Cinnamomum species; Ceylon cinnamon, from Sri Lanka, is the one the NIH calls “true” cinnamon.¹ PROSEA gives cinnamaldehyde as 70 to 95 percent of Chinese cassia’s bark oil, with only traces of eugenol, and 50 to 75 percent of Ceylon’s, with 5 to 18 percent eugenol.²³

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship, with the source named.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. We show each one and do not average them.
• Method: we found no published ratio. We give a direction and a cautious starting point, and say so.

The published ratios here are merchants’ rules of thumb. None of them says how it was worked out, and we found no study measuring cinnamon’s strength against any substitute.

If cinnamon is the lead flavor in baking

When cinnamon is the flavor you’d name, your best stand-in is a blend that already has it.

1. Apple pie spice or pumpkin pie spice

McCormick’s apple pie spice lists cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice; its pumpkin pie spice lists cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice.⁴⁵ US labels list ingredients in descending order by weight, so cinnamon is the biggest single ingredient in both.⁶ McCormick itself suggests using its apple pie spice in place of cinnamon in baked goods, though it doesn’t give an amount.⁴

How much of a blend is cinnamon varies. Oregon State University’s homemade pumpkin pie spice uses 2 tablespoons of cinnamon in a recipe that makes 4 tablespoons, so it’s about half cinnamon by volume.⁷ McCormick doesn’t publish its proportions.

Ratio: We didn’t find one published for this swap. Start one for one. The result will taste less of cinnamon and more of nutmeg, allspice or ginger. If cinnamon is the whole point, as in cinnamon sugar, a blend is a compromise.

If cinnamon is warm background in a mix or savory dish

In chili, tagines, curries and spice rubs, cinnamon is one warm note among several. A stronger warm spice, used sparingly, can cover for it.

1. Allspice or nutmeg

Allspice is named for a flavor that resembles a mix of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, according to Britannica.⁸ Chemically it’s closer to cloves than cinnamon: PROSEA gives eugenol as 50 to 80 percent of allspice berry oil.⁹ That eugenol overlaps with Ceylon cinnamon’s minor eugenol note, not with cinnamaldehyde.³

Ratio (Attributed): McCormick calls nutmeg, allspice and mace “more powerful spices” and suggests 1/4 teaspoon of any of them for each teaspoon of cinnamon.¹⁰ The Spice House gives the same figure for nutmeg and allspice: use ¼ the amount.¹¹ Two merchants agree, but neither says where the figure came from.

2. Ground ginger

Ratio (Attributed): The Spice House says ginger and cinnamon are “fairly equal in strength” and suggests trying a 1:1 swap.¹¹ Ginger brings its own bite instead of cinnamon’s sweetness, so it’s better in savory dishes and gingerbread-style baking than on cinnamon toast.

3. Cardamom

Cardamom often shows up next to cinnamon, but it smells different. PROSEA gives its oil as mainly 1,8-cineole and α-terpinyl acetate.¹² It shares nothing chemically with cinnamon’s main compound.

Ratio: We found no credible published ratio. Start with half the cinnamon amount, taste, and add more. Expect a cooler, more resinous result.

If the recipe calls for a stick and you have ground (or the reverse)

Sticks usually get simmered in a liquid, like cider, a curry sauce or a pot of rice, and then pulled out. Ground cinnamon stays in the dish, so it can cloud a clear liquid.

Ratio (Disputed): McCormick publishes two figures that don’t agree.

The first is a volume figure for grinding a short stick. The second is a flavor swap for a stick of unstated length. They answer slightly different questions, and they’re four times apart. Starting point: use ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon per stick in a simmered liquid, taste near the end, and add more if you need it.

If you are swapping one cinnamon for another

Ceylon in place of cassia

PROSEA notes that cinnamon and cassia barks are interchangeable in many uses.² Ceylon is the milder and finer of the two, according to CBI, the Dutch government’s import-promotion center.¹⁴ Its oil has less cinnamaldehyde and more eugenol than Chinese cassia’s.³²

Ratio: No published ratio. Start one for one, and add a little more Ceylon if the dish tastes flat.

Cassia in place of Ceylon: the coumarin point

The flavor swap is easy: since Ceylon is the milder one, use slightly less cassia and taste.¹⁴ What really matters is coumarin, a natural flavor compound that can harm the liver in a small group of sensitive people.¹⁵

• How much is in each. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) reports that cassia contains on average about 3,000 mg of coumarin per kilogram.¹⁵ Ceylon bark contains only traces, according to a 2013 US study.¹⁶
• The safe-intake benchmark. The European Food Safety Authority’s tolerable daily intake is 0.1 mg of coumarin per kilogram of body weight.¹⁷ By the BfR’s estimate, a 60 kg adult reaches it with about 2 g of average cassia a day, and a 15 kg child with about 0.5 g.¹⁵ The BfR notes that even relatively low doses can cause liver damage in a small group of especially sensitive people.¹⁵
• What that means for a recipe. The NIH says ordinary amounts of cassia in food usually don’t supply enough coumarin to cause problems, but that long-term use could be an issue for sensitive people.¹ So swapping cassia into the occasional pie isn’t the worry. If a recipe was written for Ceylon because it uses a lot of cinnamon often, like a daily cinnamon drink or a child’s breakfast, stick with Ceylon.
• Telling them apart. The BfR says you can hardly tell the two apart once they’re ground.¹⁵ Look for “Ceylon cinnamon” on the label.

Ratio: Start with three quarters as much cassia as the Ceylon called for, and taste. There’s no published ratio.

What isn’t known

• No study compares the flavor strength of cinnamon with allspice, nutmeg, ginger or cardamom. The ¼ and 1:1 figures are merchants’ guidance.
• We didn’t find anyone who publishes how much cinnamon is in a commercial pie spice blend. Labels give only the order of ingredients by weight.⁶
• The two McCormick stick conversions differ fourfold, and the substitution figure doesn’t give a stick length.¹⁰¹³
• You’ll often see a tip that allspice should replace cinnamon at one third the amount. We found no source for that figure; the two sources we did find both say one quarter.¹⁰¹¹

Related

• Cinnamon, Ceylon cinnamon, cassia cinnamon and Ceylon vs. cassia cinnamon
• Saigon cinnamon and Korintje cinnamon
• Ground cinnamon vs. cinnamon stick and cinnamon vs. nutmeg
• Allspice, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom and mace
• Apple pie spice and pumpkin pie spice
• Too much cinnamon? How to fix the dish