What is allspice? For starters: It’s versatile. It swings sweet and savory. It refuses to be put in a box (except literally, of course, to be mailed to your door). Whenever my pumpkin pies, pickling brines, soups, or braises need a little warmth and pizzazz, it’s enigmatic allspice that I reach for first.
Moving beyond function and into form, the allspice we know and love is actually a berry. Also known as a Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, or pimento, allspice is the unripe fruit of the Pimenta dioica, an evergreen tree in the Myrtle family native to the West Indies, Southern Mexico, and Central America. Once dried, the fruits look like peppercorns but fresh and unripe, the green berries more closely resemble olives. As my colleague and food editor Shilpa Uskokovic explains, allspice is “picked unripe and then fermented and dried before being packaged and sold.”
What allspice isn’t, despite the gotcha name, is a whole bunch of spices mixed together, says Caroline Schiff, pastry chef at Gage & Tollner, executive chef at Slow Up, and author of the cookbook The Sweet Side of Sourdough. “That’s a common misconception.”
So, what’s the flavor of allspice?
It makes sense that allspice is often mistaken for a blend like Chinese five-spice or pumpkin spice—because the flavor profile is multidimensional, featuring notes of cloves, nutmeg, star anise, fennel, black pepper, and cinnamon. It’s warming, with a peppery and savory backbone, says Schiff. “Like pumpkin spice’s cool, sophisticated cousin who subscribes to The Paris Review, drinks natural wine, and claims to have never been to Starbucks.” You know the one.
How do I cook with allspice?
Cooks around the world use allspice in both sweet and savory recipes, like “Jamaican jerk seasoning, Middle Eastern baharat, Swedish pickled herring, Mexican mole, Portuguese beef stew, and corned beef,” Uskokovic says. You’ll also notice traces of its characteristic complexity in aromatic liqueurs like Chartreuse and Bénédictine.
In recipes that call for pumpkin spice, Schiff loves to use allspice instead—“I think it adds some more complexity,” she says—and she’ll often toast whole allspice berries in a dry pan before simmering in mulled cider or wine or infusing into milk and cream for ice cream. Uskokovic uses allspice most commonly in sweet recipes, adding “a fat pinch or two to a thick, glossy caramel sauce that’s good over ice cream, under a flan, or layered between rounds of cake.” Come summer, she cooks whole allspice berries with apricots, sugar, fresh ginger, and lemon “for a heady jam” that lasts her through the rest of the year.
Allspice joins its friends cloves, cinnamon, and star anise in this warming-yet-tart co*cktail.
