Allspice or (Pimento)

Allspice or (Pimento)
Allspice, Pimento dioica (L.), is the dried fruit of an evergreen tree belonging to the Myrtle family. The tree is native to the West Indies, but is found in Mexico, Central America, and northern South America.

The berries are harvested just before they ripen because the ripened fruits lose much of their quantity.

The berries are dried by exposing them to the sun for a period of 7 – 12 days, the common name, allspice, originates from the fact that the berries have a flavor similar to the combined flavors of nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon. Most commercial allspice comes from Kingston Jamaica.

Allspice contains a volatile oil, resin, cellulose, pentosans, starch, pigments, etc. The starch granules are small, nearly circular, and uniform in size with central dotted hilum.

Allspice contains lumps of yellow brown, or resin, which is characteristics of this spice. The volatile oil constitutes 3 – 4.5% of allspice. The principal flavor component of the oil is eugenol, which makes up 60 – 75% of the oil.

Allspice is available both whole and ground. It is used for flavoring meats, gravies, sauces, relishes, pickles, preserves, puddings, cakes, and beverages. Ground allspice is a constituent of spice mixtures such as curry powder and pastry spice.

Adulterants reported in ground allspice include clove stems, nutshells, fruit stones, cereals and dried fruit products.
Allspice (Pimento)

Bay Laurel

Bay Laurel
Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis, Lauracae) also known as Sweet Bay is a tree which is cultivated throughout Turkey, Israel, Russia, Italy and France although, increasingly, commercial crops of leaves is being exported from Greece and Mexico. A similar crop is found in China but the variety is different and the leaves contain an essential oil having a marked phenolics odor not unlike that of West Indian bay.

The leaves yield about 2% essential oil when steam distilled. The leaves are 6–12 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, with a characteristic finely serrated and wrinkled margin. It is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants; each flower is pale yellow-green, about 1 cm diameter, borne in pairs together beside a leaf (Herb). The fruit is a small black berry about 1 cm long, containing a single seed.

Component of the essential oil
Alpha–pinene
cineole (45 – 50%)

Beta–phellandrene
1- linalool
1-alpha-terpineol
geraniol
euogenol
methyl eugenol
geranyl and eugenyl esters

Bay Laurel

Variability of Odor and Flavor Strength of Spices

Variability of Odor and Flavor Strength of Spices
Spices posses the variation characteristics of all natural products. With few exceptions, spices depend for much of their value upon the essential oil content. It is the quantity present which determines the flavoring power; and its composition determines the flavoring quality of the spices essential oil is a product of the plant’s metabolic processes and is particularly subject to seasonal and climatic changes in the growing area; to the nature of the soil in each region; to the care taken in planting, husbandry and harvesting; and, finally, to the care taken during the preparation of the spice for marketing – which often may be after long periods of storage under adverse conditions in tropical warehouses. At all stages the essential oil content is at risk, giving rise to commercial samples of wide flavoring differences.

Whereas one would expect flavor differences between related plants of different species, perhaps it is not so widely realized that there can be even more significant differences in aromatic profiles between plants of the same species but grown in different regions. This becomes obvious when one compares the flavor profile of ginger grown in Jamaica, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cochin, China, Australia or New Guinea. All are derived from Zingiber officinale, L; but one certainly cannot transpose one source for another without endangering the flavor profile of end-product.

The needs for the good working knowledge of the source of herbs and spices and the aromatic profiles of the commercial grades available are obvious.
Variability of Odor and Flavor Strength of Spices