All Spicy Buccaneers

I happen to be at an event. Not one of my events but another person’s event. He was giving calm precise direction whenever I saw him. Always smiling but still firm. After about an hour I happened upon a chance to speak to him. I told him he was doing a great job of organizing. I smiled at him and said he was directing things like Spielberg. 

 He stopped dead in his tracks and stared daggers at me. He grimaced, shook his head and stormed off. Uhhhhmmm….. Ok Dude your event looks more like Nero 

is in charge. Strange…..

I made a recipe the other day of plum bread and it called for crushed allspice.

 I complied and poured out the little wooden looking balls and proceeded to crush them in a mortar. When they were smashed to powder I added them. The bread is delicious. But what exactly are those little wooden balls known as allspice? They have an aroma, when ground that smells like a combination of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg.

Allspice is also known as Jamaican Pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, and newspice and is the unripen dried fruit of a tree native to Southern Mexico, Greater Antilles and Central America. It grows very well and thrives with little help on the island of Jamaica.  When dried the fruit resembles peppercorns and is why the Spanish explores named the fruit pimenta.  Allspice is sold in the berry form because the flavor lasts longer and the aromas are readily released when newly crushed before use.

It is used as an ingredient in Caribbean jerk seasoning

 mole` sauces, 

and in pickling, also in many Middle Eastern dishes, 

sausage making, 

desserts 

and barbecue sauces.

The Mayans used Allspice in their embalming practices, and South American Indians to flavor chocolate.

Now for the part that caught my attention, you will soon know why. Remember I said it was known as Jamaican pepper. Let me tell you a story….

The natives, known as the Arawak, on the island of Jamaica used allspice berries, the wood and the leaves to preserve, smoke and cure meat. This cured meat was called boucan.  As European explores came to Jamaica they learned of the spiced, cured meats and took to curing their own meats this way calling the process boucaniering. 

The men who cured their meat with smoke and spice were called boucaniers and later buccaneers. These Buccaneers started trading with the Spanish who would stop for fresh water and supplies. This blossomed into trading with any and all ships including Pirates who sailed the Spanish Main. As a reference, the mainland of the North and South American continents enclosing the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico was referred to as the Spanish Main. As business grew the Buccaneers expanded and moved to more areas and larger towns and cities. The Buccaneers became more powerful. This caused the Spanish to declare war on them. The Buccaneers moved to Tortuga which was very defensible and set up a fortress and began their new endeavor – to harass the Spanish and their ships.  

The Spanish in retaliation made it their mission to slaughter all the animals available to Tortuga and ruin their livelihood bringing them into submission. By this time there were English and French Buccaneers on Tortuga. 

 This “starvation” worked. The Buccaneers had to find a way to survive and so they did. Instead of hunting animals they started hunting Spanish Galleons and were labeled Pirates. Because of their skill at hunting which insured their livelihood the Buccaneers were expert shots and greatly feared.

One of the most famous of the Buccaneers to come from Tortuga was Francois L'Ololonnais. 

It was whispered among his crew that he cut out the heart of a Spanish captive and gnawed on it when the man refused to give the location of a trade route. His quickly became known as a “blood thirsty” Pirate.

Sail safe my friends!!