Allspice

Allspice berries release grilled flavours of roast almond and soft fruit.
Perfect with:
- pan-fried foie gras.
- rabbit terrine.
- bitter chocolate sauce
- beef stew with carrots.
- chocolate mint desserts.

Be careful not to over heat it while cooking as this may make it bitter.

The Aztec pepper! Allspice berries are the dried fruit of the Pimenta dioica, a tree which can grow as tall as 30 metres high. This tree is originally from Mexico and the islands of Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica. Over the centuries, allspice berries were introduced and grown in Barbados, Honduras, Guatemala and Brazil. The Aztec were the first to use allspice berries as seasoning (to flavour chocolate) and for embalming.

Allspice berries were introduced to Europe in the 16th century by the Spanish. When the English conquered Jamaica in 1655, they also took control of the trade of allspice which is why it's also called "English spice". In the 17th century, it was used by sailors to preserve meat and fish on long journeys. Christopher Colombus called it "Jamaica pepper" when he found it on an expedition as he thought it was a pepper (Piper nigrum).