Allspice is one of the most important ingredients of Caribbean cuisine. Under the name pimento, it is used in Jamaican jerk seasoning, and traditionally its wood was used to smoke jerk in Jamaica. In the West Indies, an allspice liqueur is produced under the name "pimento dram".
Allspice, also commonly known as pimento, is prized for its complex and versatile flavor. Tasting like cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove, the humble brown berry is essential in Caribbean and Middle Eastern cooking, and popular in many European style dishes as well.
Pimento seed in Jamaica refers to the dried unripe fruit of the Pimenta dioica tree, which is a native evergreen shrub found in all 14 parishes. It's also known as allspice, pimenta, Jamaica pepper, or myrtle pepper and can be found throughout certain parts of the Caribbean and Central America.
The dried unripe berries of Pimenta Dioica [(L)Merr] are termed Allspice. It is also called Jamaican pepper, Pimenta or Newspice.
The pimento tree is indigenous to the Caribbean Islands. It was found growing in Jamaica by early Spanish explorers who were quite impressed with the taste and aroma of the berries and the leaves.
The original inhabitants of Jamaica are believed to be the Arawaks, also called Tainos. They came from South America 2,500 years ago and named the island Xaymaca, which meant ““land of wood and water”.
Allspice, also known as Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, or pimento, is the dried unripe berry of Pimenta dioica, a midcanopy tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central America, now cultivated in many warm parts of the world.
The pimento pepper (often spelled pimiento) is also called the cherry pepper. It is a sweet pepper measuring 3-4 inches long and 2-3 inches wide with a bright red color and shaped like a heart.
Scotch Bonnet Pepper
Scotch Bonnet is a hot pepper variety originating from Jamaica and the Caribbean area. These peppers usually come in red or yellow colors and they have four globular ridges at the bottom. They're harvested in late season, about 80 to 90 days after transplanting.
One of their most famous and renowned foods is jerk cuisine. Both a cooking method and a flavour combination of Jamaican herbs and spices, including sweet allspice, savoury thyme, and super-hot scotch bonnet chillies, Jamaican Jerk Spice is used to marinate meats like chicken and pork and seafood like prawns and fish.
A pimento is a small red pepper.
Name. Spanish pimiento and Portuguese pimento both come from Latin pigmentum ("pigment; coloring") and came to be used for bell peppers. The English borrowed "pimiento" and "pimento" as loanwords for what is distinguished in Spanish as pimentón and in Portuguese as pimentão.
pimento in American English
(pəˈmɛntoʊ ) nounWord forms: plural piˈmentos. 1. a sweet variety of the capsicum pepper, or its red, bell-shaped fruit, used as a relish, as a stuffing for olives, etc.
Trinidad Pimento-(Capsicum chinense)-The Trinidad Pimento is also known as the Trinidad Seasoning pepper. It is the most popular cooking pepper on the Islands of Trinidad and Tobago. It turns from light green to dark red or orange red.
Whole pimento prices have averaged $3.41 per kg over the review period and, as at 2018, are priced below the average at $3.13. Jamaican pimento prices in the market averages at just over $2 in excess of that rate – reaching $5.69 per kg in 2018.
You'll see this classic food spelled two different ways: pimiento or pimento. The Food Lover's Companion, a dictionary devoted to food, offers both spelling variations of the word. Spanish for pepper, pimientos are sweet, fragrant, heart-shaped red peppers about 3 inches long and wide.
Jamaica's national fruit, the ackee is commonly used as the main ingredient in the island's traditional food dish, ackee and saltfish. This pear-shaped produce features a mild, nutty taste, which is why it is commonly curried over rice or cooked with tomatoes, onions, and codfish.
If you love Jamaican Food then you have to love Scotch Bonnet Peppers. Scotch Bonnets are responsible for the delicious spicy burn that's found in many Jamaican dishes. Not only are they intensely spicy, they also provide a more complex set of flavors that helps to give Jamaican food its well-rounded taste.
In Spain, pimentón just means “paprika.” Like Hungarian paprika, though, Spanish paprika has its own traditions and classifications, so it's worth seeking out the real deal if you're a fan of Spanish cuisine. Typical grocery store paprika is usually machine-dried and lacks the smoky, sweet depth of pimentón.
The flavor of pimentos is usually sweet with a very little amount of heat. Red bell pepper is an excellent substitute for pimentos due to its close similarity in taste. Although pimentos are known to be stronger and more aromatic in flavor, coupled with a succulent texture that bell pepper lacks.
Pimento and red bell peppers are both red peppers that are commonly used in cooking. Pimento is a type of red pepper that is sweeter and milder than a red bell pepper. Red bell peppers are more spicy and have a sharper flavor.
1680s, pimiento (modern form from 1718), "dried, aromatic berries of an evergreen tree native to the West Indies," cultivated mostly in Jamaica, from Spanish pimiento "pepper-plant, green or red pepper," also pimienta "black pepper," from Late Latin pigmenta, plural of pigmentum "vegetable juice," from Latin pigmentum ...
Noteworthy Characteristics. Pimenta dioica, commonly called allspice or Jamaica pepper, is native to the West Indies, Mexico and Central America. It is a small evergreen tree that typically grows from 20-40' tall.
The name Jamaica is derived from Xaymaca, the Taíno-Arawak name for the island, which translates, as 'isle of springs'. Jamaica was charted by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage and the first Europeans to arrive on the island were the Spanish in 1509.