Pimento Ground

Also known as Jamaican pepper and allspice, pimento is the most important spice in Caribbean cooking. Pimento is a dried berry from a tropical evergreen tree. Its pleasant aroma resembles a blend of cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg with peppery overtones, and is used to flavour pickles, relishes, sauces, poultry, fish, stuffings and cooked vegetables. The warm, aromatic spice may be used in cakes, puddings and preserves. The Aztecs and Mayans used pimento in a stimulating, bitter, frothy drink, made by mixing roasted, ground cacao beans with water, to which they added chilli peppers and other native spices such as annatto, allspice and vanilla.

Pimento promotes digestive health, warms the body, increases circulation and lowers blood pressure. Eugenol, the essential oil of pimento, has local anaesthetic and antiseptic properties. The spice is a source of vitamin A, vitamin B6 and vitamin C.

 To get your pimento fix, add this spice to your chicken, paired with eggplant, garlic, tomato and poppy seeds. Once cooked, arrange the allspice chicken on top of the layer of spinach leaves and serve with the garden-fresh salad and crispy, lightly golden rounds of pita bread. Or even better, enjoy it in a Spicy Tzimmes cake, which gets better and dewier as it sits, and can be made up to three days before serving. Pimento promises fond food memories!