What the Hell

“For me, it’s all about the feeling you get when you smell pumpkin spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, gingerbread, and spruce.”

Taylor Swift

Thank you for stopping by, sit back and relax with that fresh brewed cup of coffee and enjoy the humor and history.

Tilly: Spruce? Spruce leaves or bark in the mix? Or the smell of the trees nearby?

One thing that has annoyed me over the last few years is how we human beings misuse certain spice or herb blends.

Let me explain. I am by my nature a traditionalist, a lover of history and of course my southern mountain roots. Having spoken to several of my friends a few years back I came to the conclusion that they were nuts.  Why?  We were discussing canning and freezing Veggies and other fall goodies the good earth gave us. When the conversation took a turn that brought me to my knees. They admitted they love pumpkin Martinis and pumpkin lattes, “latte’s is a fancy name for a cup of overpriced coffee with all things whipped cream”.

Just what is this pumpkin spice history and oldest recipe, some historians believe the recipe dates back to the mid fourteenth century, which they used on meats. The recipe used ginger, cinnamon, grains of paradise and pepper among other major spices such as nutmeg, cloves, galingale, and sugar. Some have even used a mixture of cassia cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves to make a medieval sweet and sour chicken stew, which also has onions, wine, and raisins.

Tilly: I had to look up grains of paradise:  Aframomum Melegueta Spice – Alligator Pepper, Guinea Pepper. Chemicals in the seeds of grains of paradise seem to decrease swelling (inflammation), kill certain bacteria, and help burn body fat. Galingale might be better known as galangal whch is widely used in Thai cuisine, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Malaysian cooking. Other names for galangal include Blue Ginger, Thai Ginger and Galingale

One of the oldest recipes for this blend dates back to the 1390’s. Le Menagier de Paris

“ Goodman of Paris” has a recipe that is 17 parts ginger, 4 parts each  cinnamon and sugar, and 2 parts each of cloves and grains of Paradise. It was used on poultry, fish and other meats.

In the 1420’s  Du Fait De Cuisine a Savoy blend used ginger, cinnamon, grains of paradise and pepper as the main ingredients adding in nutmeg, cloves, galingale, sugar, just to name a few.

Speed forward to the 1700’s in the first cook book published in America, Amelia Simmons in her cookbook American Cookery.  Wrote this:

Pompkin

No. 1. One quart stewed and strained, 3 pints cream, 9 beaten eggs, sugar, mace, nutmeg and ginger, laid into paste No. 7 or 3, and with a dough spur, cross and chequer it, and baked in dishes three quarters of an hour.

Tilly: Okay, Olive … what does she mean by a ‘dough spur’? Attach it to the back of your shoe and bake it?

Olive: Tilly, I guess the best way to describe a dough spur would be like today’s pizza cutter

No. 2. One quart of milk, 1 pint pompkin, 4 eggs, molasses, allspice and ginger in a crust, bake 1 hour.

By the late 19^th century to the 20^th century the blend became quite popular. No longer used on meats or in stews instead the spice company’s such as Mc Cormick or the Thomson and Taylor Co. premixed the blend of “Pumpkin Pie Spice” and it sold for as little as 10 cents.. The advert in part reads… “Now, for the first time, you can get the necessary nine spices, ready-mixed for instant use, in one 10c package of T&T Pumpkin Pie Spice – enough for 12 pies.”

A tidbit here, they didn’t just use pumpkin they also used squash. That is better than using it on a leg of lamb.

Tilly: Given how tasteless pumpkin is, and often soggy, I think I’d rather it went on lamb … or chicken. Or anything.

Not long after that. McCormick advertised their own brand calling it, “”Pumpkin Pie & Ginger Bread Spice,” a blend of “ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and other spices.”

 What about today’s market, well it seems we have stepped into a time machine and went back to the 1300’s. It is used in everything from coffee, to ice cream, to raviolis… and who ever came up with that one needs a good therapist.

As for me, the only time I use this blend is either in pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie.

NOT in my coffee, or anything else…

So Tilly what do you use it for. Please don’t tell me leg of lamb, or stew…

Tilly: In truth, I’d use these fragrant spices in cakes, muffins, steamed puddings, curries, casseroles, savoury pies. But not pumpkin. I might give it a whirl with butternut, which has some flavour and texture. Might be interesting in a baked egg custard. As it is cold and miserable today, something with these aromatic spices appeals. Happily, we do not have any pumpkin around!

Olive and Tilly