SC - Off Topic: Muggles for Harry Potter

[KallipygosRed@aol.com]

OK....so then where did the kind I mix in with cheddar and mayo to make my
sandwich spread get their name...another kind of pepper?  Yes, I know it is of
the capiscum family, most of which are referred to as peppers, but why, if the
one I know as pimento is sweet, would they have called it by the male, or
stronger name?

Kiri

Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir wrote:

> 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
>
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