Sunday, October 17, 2010

Sunday Trivia - What is Allspice?

What is allspice?

Ever wonder what makes up the allspice?  It sounded like it's a mixture of all different kinds of spices doesn't it?  At least that's what it seems to me.  However, in truth, the real thing is only made up of one thing:  the dried pepper of a Jamaican pepper tree known as pimento (not to be confused with pimiento chillies).   The flavor of the dried berries smells like a combination of cinnamon, clove, ginger, and nutmeg, hence the name allspice.  Some store-bought allspice are made up of a combination of the spices mentioned above and not the real bean, but they mimic pretty closely.  So you can look for a substitute if you need to :)

Have a good Sunday and a great start to the week ahead!!

More resources on allspice:
Encyclopedia of spices on The Epicenter

2 comments:

  1. Ha - I didn't know that! :-) I would have thought like you said, allspice is a mixture. Mice to learn new things! :-)

    So... how do they stuff these dried berries into the olives? :-O

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  2. Not to be confused either with Old Spice...XD

    Thanks for the info btw! Good to learn about this :-)

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