You do realize there’s no Pumpkin in pumpkin spice, right?
Pumpkin Pie is spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Which are wonderful spices, individually and in combination. Those spices are the same I use for Apple Pie, so in theory we could call it Apple Pie Spice season! The fun thing is, the last decade that combination gets a lot of hate, but if you think about it, Pumpkin Pie Spice changed the course of history.
And now we know that those spices have been used by humans for a lot longer than we’d previously thought. Nutmeg has been found in 3500 year old cooking pots. So maybe we need to stop fighting the spice and embrace it, instead?
Comments
17 responses to “Pumpkin Spice Season”
Or, as they call it across the Pond, Mixed Spice.
Much more accurate, that.
Well, yes, but…I have a couple of other mixed spices in my cupboard (poultry seasoning, and Italian seasoning), and then there is curry seasoning, and taco seasoning, and probably some others I’m not thinking of. So we really couldn’t just use the generic term ‘mixed spice.’
Ooh, which kind of curry spice?
Mine is, I think, “Asian Curry,” but it might go straight “Japanese Curry,” I use it for winter stews. I can’t manage the roux(sp) thing very consistently so the sauce is more stew than proper Japanese curry, but it is a wonderful smell.
I remember India has several different kinds, and while I know the English brought some home I have no idea what it is like. (I think the Japanese got theirs from the Brits?)
This little incident comes to mind every year at this time, because people brag about the real pumpkin taste in their pumpkin spice whatever.
I used to wait tables at a Chinese restaurant, and we once had a rather pretentious young man trying to impress his date by pointing out that he knew we were an authentic Chinese restaurant because he could taste the lobster in the lobster sauce. Which is like saying you can taste the spaghetti in your spaghetti sauce.
Lol! Yikes.
Those spices I have no issue with. There IS stuff with (out of place!) pumpkin flavor or it’s done to excess (Next 04 July, pumpkin spice firecrackers and smoke bombs!). When it’s not “OMG Pumpkin Spiiiiice Season” advertised such that it becomes as welcome as loud autoplay.. and is simply another thing, if perhaps seasonal, then.. then I won’t be cringing. Right now? The nutmeg might need to go on the eggnog or something similar.
I have an aversion to Nutmeg so I never use it. And unfortunately I can’t eat anyone’s baked goods that they’ve used nutmeg in. I won’t tell you how bad this aversion is and what it does to me, LOL.
“tis a shame, but I do understand physical aversion to something. I absolutely refused the ‘light sausage’ the First Reader offered to share with me in the hospital! LOL
I don’t much like nutmeg, either, and don’t often use it — it doesn’t have any dreadful effects, I just don’t care for it. And yet, I love cloves (absolutely love them! Sometimes when I’m passing the spice cabinet, I will open the cloves just to sniff them!). And I know people (including Cedar’s dad) who can’t stand cloves.
and in large amounts and different proportions, it can be used to make Indian food!
With star anise and cardamom!
I think my container says something like “pie spice,” but I don’t mind the fad at all– because it means I can get the stuff to put on apples for drying, without having to do more than add sugar and cinnamon! (I like cinnamon.)
ehh, it said ‘pie spice’ or ‘pumpkin pie spice’ in the 80s…
But it wasn’t usually in stock until Thanksgiving, which is a little late when apples have been rolling in for better than a month now. (or did, when we lived in a place with trees….)
Now it shows up about July, if it’s not there year round!
When I make pumpkin bread, I add cardamom to the standard pumpkin pie spice mix. It’s very well received.
Its the exact same spice mixture that I use when I make my soft molasses cookies. Or, with the addition of cloves and white pepper, makes my dad’s Chai-doodle cookies. So it makes me laugh and roll my eyes at the same time. The “pumpkin spice” season is massively overdone though, and tends to annoy me.