Allspice – usually known as pimento outside the USA – is the dried unripe berry of a tree native to the West Indies & Latin America. It is the only major spice grown, on a commercial scale, exclusively in the Western Hemisphere. The name is due to its flavor, which resemebles a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. I always substitute allspice for cloves in recipes. The mere scent of cloves alone is something I regard as absolutely intolerable. (Peppermint is perhaps the only other flavor to which I have deep-seated antipathy.)
I recall a day in cooking school in which one of my classmates dispensed gifts: Bay leaves, cardamom pods, nutmegs with the mace blades, and whole allspice berries that had been brought to her by her sister. All of the items were grown on their family’s property in Granada.
Three of my favorite uses for allspice: In plum chutney, tomato marmalade, and on the sweet side, in a custard to serve with dried Mission figs.
