: SC - Coconuts in Period

[Decker, Terry D.]

Kiri wrote:


>All right.  Now I'm confused.  When I think "pimento", I think of a reddish
>pepper sort of thing that's sweet that I mix with mayo and cheddar cheese
to
>make pimento cheese.  Surely this isn't what you're talking about!  The
pimento
>I know is definitely a new world thing, and I've never seen it any way but
in a
>small glass jar.
>
>So please, 'splain!



"...when Spanish explorers encountered the plant in Jamaica at the beginning
of the 16th century, they thought the berries resembled those of the pepper
and gave them names such as "Jamaica pepper", and "pimento" (from pimienta,
the Spanish word for peppercorn).

As for the peppers, pim(i)ento was originally used as a term to cover all
peppers. I´ve read somewhere that the Spaniards (presumably a different set
of Spaniards from those who encountered the allspice berries) thought that
since this new spice was hotter and more potent than pepper (pimienta, which
is female), it had to be a male version, so they called it pimiento (male).
I have no idea if that is true.

Allspice is called pepper in many languages (Jamaica pepper, Nelkenpfeffer,
kryddpeppar, poivre de la jamaique, etc.), pimenta in others, but some names
also refer to its taste and aroma, which often seem like a blend of several
spices (in Icelandic, it is called allrahanda, which means "all sorts"; this
term is also used for mixed spice blends of the type I described in my
earlier post and sometimes you have no idea which of these things the term
refers to in a recipe.

Nanna