As Halloween draws near, people organise parties, select costumes, buy candy, and pumpkin spice makes its yearly entrance as the star ingredient in an amazing variety of items. If you can eat it, drink it, clean with it, or dab it on your body, there's certainly a pumpkin spice version of that product. This includes coffees, biscuits, cakes, saltines, detergents, and cosmetics, among other things. Fall's signature taste, pumpkin spice, never seems to go out of style. There is one strange fact, though, that most people probably don't notice. Pumpkin is not actually present in traditional pumpkin spice.
What Exactly Is Pumpkin Spice
Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves from several nations—mostly Asia—are combined to make pumpkin spice. These are combined with allspice, a spice derived from the dried berries of a tree found in Central America and the Caribbean islands.
Origin
Throughout history, different iterations of the cosmopolitan mix have been used. A similar mixture known as Speculaaskruiden, which is still a preferred flavour in some Dutch delicacies, was made in the 1600s by Dutch invaders who took control of the Spice Islands in what is now Indonesia. The major ingredients of this combination were cardamom and white pepper.
In order to flavour meat and fish, the British around the end of the 17th century combined spices from their own colonies. At about the same time, the spice mixture made its way to the New World, where it was included in Amelia Simmons's first American cookbook, American Cookery, which was published there. But the blend we now know as pumpkin spice didn't have a well-known name until 1934. We may thank American spice merchant McCormick, who started producing a product called Pumpkin Pie Spice, for that. The spice blend's name accurately characterised its purpose because it was created to season the then-common canned pumpkin purée used in pumpkin pies. In the 1960s, McCormick abbreviated the name to just Pumpkin Spice.
It is simple to prepare at home and is a very useful spice to keep in your cabinet.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground allspice
Method:
Simply combine all ingredients in a tight container or jar. Seal it after a thorough shake. Use as necessary.
How To Use
Add it to coffee: Pumpkin pie spice can be added to coffee grounds or your homemade pumpkin spice latte.
Top it on whipped cream: A drizzle over pies, such as pumpkin, apple, and pecan.
Create delicious spiced nuts; they're great as gifts or afternoon munchies.
Pasta with Brown Butter and Fried Sage or Pasta with Butternut Squash, Sage, and Pine Nuts would also taste amazing with a fantastic pumpkin ravioli in a sage butter sauce with pumpkin pie spice.
