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| Allspice branch |
Jamaica is known for its fiery jerk pastes, which are commonly used to marinate pork or chicken before barbecuing. Jerk is made mostly of onions and local chile cultivars of unmatched heat and pungency. The paste derives is characteristic taste from allspice berries, furthermore allspice or cinnamon leaves, garlic, fresh thyme, black pepper and vinegar or lime juice; the recipe is variable and may include further seasonings like orange juice, coriander leaves, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Authenticity is increased by adding dry allspice branches to the firewood.
Allspice is also grown in México, albeit in lesser quality. It is used there for the famous mole sauces of Central México (see paprika) and often also for the recados of Yucatán (see annatto).
In Europe, England consumes most of it. The British like it for stews and sauces and for flavouring pickled vegetables (together with white mustard seeds). Allspice is also quite popular in the US, where cooks use it for quite similar purposes.
On the European continent, allspice is less appreciated; it is, however, contained in commercial spice mixtures for sausages and much loved by Scandinavians for fine meat pastries, as are used in the Danish specialty smørrebrød (white bread topped with a selection of sausages, pastries, fish, cheese and vegetables). Other spices popular in Scandinavia are dill and cardamom seeds.
Allspice berries sometimes show up in the somewhat antiquated French spice mixture quatre épices (see nutmeg).
It is interesting to note that allspice has not been accepted by Asian cooks,
although its occurrence in curry powder is sometimes claimed (see curry leaves) and it is quite well-known in
South Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean (Turkey). The
pungent-aromatic quality of
allspice is, however, much in line with Arabic cooking style; it is rather
surprising that allspice is not called for in West Asian mutton dishes. I guess
this is not a matter of taste but of availability, since allspice is nowhere
grown in Asia to a significant extent. The only cuisine of the Old World using
allspice lies in East Africa: The Ethiopian spice mixture
berbere (see long pepper) indeed
contains allspice, which is grown on Réunion Island not far away.
