Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Herb guide to Malabathrum along with all the Malabathrum containing recipes presented on this site, with 26 recipes in total.

e This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Malabathrum as a major herb flavouring.

Malabathrum, Cinnamomum tamala (also known as Malobathrum, Malabar leaf, Cinnamomum tejpata and, erroneously as Indian Bay leaf) is an herb derived from a tree in the Lauraceae (laurel) family that's native to the southern slopes of the Himalayas and which is related to cassia and cinnamon. It grows to about 1.8m tall and recalls celery in both its appearance and flavour. It is a wildlife attractant in the garden and is a good companion plant. Malabathrum is a moderately-sized evergreen tree growing to about 8m in height, with a trunk girth of up to 150cm. Its bark produces mucilage. Leaves lanceolate, glabrous; alternately placed, opposite and short stalked. 3-nerved from the base. The tree flowers from May and fruits between June and July.



The leaves are used as an herb in Indian (most notably Moghul and Bengali [where they are known as tej patta]), Nepali and Bhutanese cuisines. Malabathrum are often, erroneously, described as Indian Bay Leaves. Though bayleaves come from the Mediterranean bay laurel and the flavour profile and appearance of the leaves are entirely different. In structure, bay leaves are shorter and light to medium green in colour, with one large vein running down the length of the leaf, whilst malabathrum are about twice as long and wider than laurel leaves. They are usually olive green in colour, may have some brownish spots and have three veins down the length of the leaf. True malabathrum leaves impart a strong cassia- or cinnamon-like aroma to dishes, while the bay leaf's aroma is more reminiscent of pine and lemon.



Malabathrum leaves are strongly aromatic, with a flavour reminiscent of cinnamon or cloves. The essential oil from the leaves is dominated by linalool (50%) with α-pinene, p-cymene, β-pinene and limonene ranging between 5 and 15%.



The Sanskrit name for the tree is tamālapattram (तमालपत्त्रम्), literally meaning 'dark-tree leaves'. During classical times, the ancient Greek and Romans used the leaves to prepare a fragrant oil, called Oleum Malabathri. As a result, the leaves had considerable commercial value. Greek traders adopted the Sanskrit name, but falsely identified the word as a plural form with definite article, (ta) malabathra [(τὰ) μαλαβάθρα] for which they backformed a singular (to) malabathron [(τὸ) μαλαβάθρον]. This name was then taken by the Romans as malabathrum or malobathrum. The Romans used them for both perfumery and cookery and Roman cookery books render them as folia (leaves) which is frequently mis-translated to 'bay leaves'. They were also used during the Middle Ages and remained a brewing ingredient until the 16th century, when they fell into disuse.

Indian Bayleaf imparts a strong cassia-like aroma to dishes and if not available are best replaced by boldo leaves, cinnamon leaves or a mixture of cassia bark and allspice berries.

Indian Bay-leaves are still used to a large extent in northern India where they are a crucial component of Moghul quisine (the style of cookery developed at the Imperial courts in Delhi and Agra) where they are commonly used in biriyanis and kormas. Today Indian Bay-leaves are hardly known in the West, though in ancient Greece and Rome the leaves were used to prepare a fragrant oil, called Oleum Malabathri, and were therefore valuable. The dried leaves were also used in Greek and Roman cookery and were known as malobathrum (also spelled malabathrum). In culinary usage they were often just referred to as folia 'leaves' (which many modern redactions of Roman recipe incorrectly interpret as 'bay leaves'). Ground Indian bay-leaves also make a crucial component in Northern Indian garam masala spice blends.