A Valuable Product From Jamaica Which Combines the Flavor of Cloves,
Cinnamon and Nutmeg
Allspice is the dried unripe berries of a tree of the myrtle family,
the pimento, known botanically as Eugenia pimenta, or Pimenta
officinalis. It’s an evergreen tree some 20 to 30 ft. high, with a
slender, straight, upright trunk, much branched at the top; the bark
is smooth, gray and aromatic; the leaves--which when fresh abound
in essential oil--are 5 in. long, of an oblong shape and deep shiny
green color; the blossoms--which appear in July and August--are white
and fragrant; the berries (sometimes called corns), which form on the
disappearance of the flower, are picked unripe, altho fully grown, they
are of a greenish-purple color. After picking, the berries are dried in
the sun or in kilns until dark brown and then separated from the stalk.
The dried berries are light, brittle, of roundish form and crowned with
the remains of the flower calyx in the shape of a raised, seared-like
ring; each berry contains two dark-brown flattish, kidney-shaped
seeds. If allowed to ripen, the berries lose their aromatic flavor and
become merely sweet and pulpy. Only in Jamaica--where it is cultivated
in plantations called Pimento walks--does the pimento tree grow to
perfection, altho attempts are made to cultivate it in other West India
islands and South America. It is thought to combine the flavor of
cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, hence it is called allspice.
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=Uses=--Its chief use is for culinary purposes. It is a powerful
irritant, good for dyspepsia, flatulency, gout, hysteria and toothache.
It is often employed to disguise the nasty taste of medicine. Allspice
yields volatile oil by distillation, which is used as a flavoring in
alcoholic solution, is of a brownish-red, clear appearance, and has the
odor and taste of pimento, but is warm and more pungent. A green fixed
oil has the burning aromatic taste of pimento and is supposed to be
the acrid principle. A tincture from allspice has been praised as an
application in chilblains.
=Substitutes.=--The Mexican spice, called Pimento de Tabascol is
somewhat larger and less aromatic than Jamaica pimento. The berries
of Pimento acris, (bayberry) whose leaves are used in the manufacture
of bay-rum. The Carolina allspice--calycanthus florides, a shrub
6 or 8 ft. high, with an odor somewhat like strawberries. Japan
allspice--chimonanthus frangrans--which grows in Japan, and wild
allspice--lindera benzoin--known also as spice-wood, fever-wood,
benjamin-bush--a member of the laurel family growing in the United
States. To secure uniformity of color these inferior kinds are often
colored with Armenian bole, a kind of red clay from Armenia, and they
are also often mixed in ground allspice, in addition to the stalks of
the pimento. A kind of red pimento from Salonica is also used as an
adulterant. During the civil war, when pimento was high in price, a
substitute was made up of clove-stems, wasted rye, a little cayenne
pepper, and some cassia; this was very acceptable, altho there was not
an ounce of pimento in it.