Making Allspice

There are two ways of doing this task. One is mix your own the other is grinding fresh Allspice Seeds. I got fresh nutmeg, cinnamon and clove seeds and grind them together. This is how I do it and have for many years but this year I did a bit more research and found you can actually create your own Allspice Blend. Now the question I have is this then to be a true Allspice? Nope but close enough when in a pinch.

First thing is do you even know what Allspice is? Me either. Come to find out it is a dried brown berry of the tropical Pimenta dioica tree. The berries are picked while still green and fermented then sun dried, during that time they turn a reddish brown. 

Now moving on to how to make your own to the closest degree. Using a mixture of equal parts

Ingredients in equal measurement of each spice

• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Cloves

I would suggest that you do a tablespoon of each and see if you like it.

Now here is how I grind my own to have fresh Allspice-ish Powder.

I take the whole cloves I bought at my local spice store. I put them into my mortar pestle to start. I never put any spices whole into the spice grinder it may be too hard to grind thus breaking my grinder. I have a Molcajete Lava Stone Mortar and Pestle. I put the clove into the Mortar and crush them. Once they are crushed  I need to make them into a powder so I pop the clove pieces into my grinder but wait you still need that Nutmeg and Cinnamon. Leave the ground cloves in the grinder.

My nutmeg I shave with the same tool I use to zest my citrus. 

Zest your nutmeg ball it will take almost a whole nutmeg to get the amount you will need. give or take. 

You will find with this Blog we give and take and recommend trusting your taste and gut ! 

Now add you nutmeg to the allspice. No need to grind again lets wait for the cinnamon. Next we need to figure how to do our cinnamon. tricky stick ! You can use cinnamon powder but make sure it is organic you get a stronger more natural taste. Call me Koo-Koo but it is the same thing with Vanilla Extract. You may think that Vanilla Extract is pure. Oh no my friend read the label most are "extracts" of the Vanilla Pod not pure pod soaked in vodka or rum....yes really go here to make your own! You will never turn back. Ok back to that Cinnamon Stick.

Cinnamon Sticks are a hard and I did not get any picture's of when I made it. So sorry it may have been a moody canner day. But use the same process you did with your nutmeg. Use your zester (many call it a microplane but zester is better understood) Once it is done add it to the rest of your spices in the coffee grinder. 

A grinder can be as simple as an old coffee bean grinder it works well for me. Grind the spice's together and then put it into a small glass jar. There are so many spices you can make and create yourself this one is pretty simple. And the good thing about the combination of those three other spice to make a mock Allspice is that if you need it in a pinch and have those other spice in your pantry.