Allspice

What dishes to use Jamaican allspice in?

Jamaican allspice is fantastic because it has very rich flavors of the 4-spice blend and can therefore be easily used in pastry. It is also spicy and therefore gives a kick to meats and savory dishes, like a spicy spice broth!

How to use Jamaican allspice?

Our recipe ideas to use Jamaican allspice in your cooking:

· roasted pineapple with vanilla-Jamaican allspice : during the preparation of your syrup, add 3 crushed Jamaican allspice berries and let infuse for 1 hour;

· gingerbread : put 5 ground Jamaican allspice berries with the rest of the spices in your preparation;

· Jerk chicken : add 1 tablespoon of ground Jamaican allspice berries to your marinade;

· gravlax salmon : add 6 crushed Jamaican allspice berries to your mixture to marinate your gravlax salmon;

· butternut squash soup with Jamaican allspice : to enhance your soups, add 2 to 3 ground Jamaican allspice berries to your soups;

· salmon fillet : roughly crush 4 to 5 Jamaican allspice berries and sprinkle them on your salmon fillets during cooking;

Jamaican allspice, for lovers of fruity taste

A blend of flavors

Jamaican allspice and its aromas are rich. Indeed, the berry releases aromas of pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon for a subtly spicy, woody taste with fresh eucalyptus notes. The usual name of this spice in English, "allspice," translates well the aromatic potential of Jamaican allspice. An essential berry that will flavor all your dishes!

Jamaican allspice and its botany

Jamaican allspice berries are the dried fruits of Pimenta dioica, a tree that can reach 30 meters high. This tree is native to Mexico and the islands of Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica, and belongs to the botanical family Myrtaceae like Eucalyptus or Manuka. It is not uncommon to hear the name "Jamaican pepper" to designate these berries. However, since Pimenta dioica is not part of the botanical genus Capsicum, it is inaccurate to call it pepper. That is why at Terre Exotique, we have preferred the designation "Jamaican berry."

Also called Myrtle pepper, over the centuries, this tree and its fruits, Jamaican allspice berries, have been introduced and cultivated in Barbados, Honduras, Guatemala, and Brazil. Over the centuries, the vernacular name "Jamaican berry" (or Jamaican pepper) has become a way to designate this spice, even though its production is no longer reserved for Jamaica.

In the months of June to August, the tree is in bloom and sports beautiful white flowers that will gradually turn into small berries that will become red once mature. Jamaican allspice berries are first handpicked before they are ripe, then dried in the sun to become brown.

A berry steeped in history

The Aztecs were the first to use Jamaican allspice berries as aromatics in cooking (to flavor chocolate or as a marinade for meat) as well as in embalming the dead.

Jamaican allspice berries were introduced to Europe in the 16th century by the Spaniards. When the English conquered Jamaica in 1655, they also took control of the trade in the famous berry, hence its other usual name "English pepper." In the 17th century, it was used by sailors to preserve meat and fish during long voyages.

It was Christopher Columbus who gave the name "Jamaican pepper" to this berry during an expedition, assimilating it to a pepper (Piper nigrum). A round and spicy berry used in cooking... If Christopher Columbus referred to the ethnobotanical definition of peppers, he was not entirely wrong. But if we refer to the botanical definition (pepper is the fruit of a vine of the family Piperaceae and the genus Piper) then it is inaccurate to call it pepper.