Spices, Their Histories: Valuable Information for Grocers

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Spices, Their Histories, by Robert O. Fielding
Valuable Information For Grocers
PRICE FIFTY CENTS
Copyrighted 1910 By THE TRADE REGISTER, Inc. Seattle, Washington.
The history of spices, with other valuable information to all branches of the grocery trade, was originally written by Robert O. Fielding, of the staff of the Trade Register, in which the several articles appeared in various issues of that journal, duly protected by copyright, with the accompanying illustrations.
Retail grocers everywhere will find this little book of especial value for study and reference. It is all meat for the salesman who realizes that success in trade these days depends upon knowing where the goods he handles were produced, how to judge their qualities, how they are prepared for market, and what are their uses. How to sell, the market conditions, etc., are continuously set forth in the weekly issues of the Trade Register, $2 a year, by men who have had practical experience behind the counter.
Editor.
Allspice is the dried unripe berries of a tree of the myrtle family, the pimento, known botanically as Eugenia pimenta, or Pimenta officinalis. It’s an evergreen tree some 20 to 30 ft. high, with a slender, straight, upright trunk, much branched at the top; the bark is smooth, gray and aromatic; the leaves—which when fresh abound in essential oil—are 5 in. long, of an oblong shape and deep shiny green color; the blossoms—which appear in July and August—are white and fragrant; the berries (sometimes called corns), which form on the disappearance of the flower, are picked unripe, altho fully grown, they are of a greenish-purple color. After picking, the berries are dried in the sun or in kilns until dark brown and then separated from the stalk. The dried berries are light, brittle, of roundish form and crowned with the remains of the flower calyx in the shape of a raised, seared-like ring; each berry contains two dark-brown flattish, kidney-shaped seeds. If allowed to ripen, the berries lose their aromatic flavor and become merely sweet and pulpy. Only in Jamaica—where it is cultivated in plantations called Pimento walks—does the pimento tree grow to perfection, altho attempts are made to cultivate it in other West India islands and South America. It is thought to combine the flavor of cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, hence it is called allspice.