Recipe Sifter

Jamaican jerk rub paste with four hot chili peppers, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and thyme. A fiery wet rub with real Caribbean heat. Mix, rub, and grill for authentic jerk flavor.

Yule log cookies shaped into scored logs, baked, sliced on the diagonal, and decorated with holly icing. Spiced with cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg.

Scotch mock apple pie: a Depression-era trick that uses soda crackers, lemon juice, and warm spices to taste exactly like apple pie. No apples required.

Green tomato and onion pickles in a sweet cider vinegar brine with mustard seeds, whole allspice, and cloves. A big-batch canning recipe that turns 4 quarts of unripe tomatoes into tangy, spiced pickles.

Wok-steamed corned beef and cabbage uses beer, allspice, mustard seed, and bay leaf to steam a brisket fork-tender, finishing with cabbage wedges and a mustard-mayo dressing. Irish St. Patrick's Day classic.

Healthy sweet potato muffins with warm spices and minimal fat. Moist breakfast muffins made with skim milk and vegetable oil instead of butter.

Traditional Greek dolmas stuffed with rice, pine nuts, fresh herbs, cinnamon, and allspice, simmered in olive oil and lemon juice. This recipe makes about 50 stuffed grape leaves served at room temperature.

Reduced-sodium sliced sweet pickles for home canning, with crisp cucumber chips in a spiced sweet vinegar syrup of allspice, mustard and celery seed. The sweet-tang flavor with far less salt.

Traditional English plum pudding, a steamed Christmas classic packed with raisins, currants, apples, walnuts, and beef suet. Spiced, dense, and deeply boozy-optional.

Saucy Caribbean black beans simmered with fresh ginger, allspice, thyme, and orange juice. Vegan, high-fiber, and full of island flavor in about 40 minutes.

Apple crumble pie with cooked apples and allspice under a chunky streusel topping of flour, sugar, and margarine. No pie crust needed, just a crumble on top.

Maple-basted broiled bluefish: oily Atlantic fish brushed with pure maple syrup, allspice, salt, and pepper, broiled or grilled until lightly caramelized. New England seafood in 20 minutes.

Marinated rabbit braised in red wine and chicken broth with allspice, thyme, and bay leaves, finished with sauteed mushrooms, pickled onions, and stuffed olives.

Spiced pumpkin or winter squash cake with a classic cooked caramel frosting. Four autumn spices, buttermilk tenderness, and a rich old-fashioned finish worth the candy thermometer.

Old-fashioned spice cake with cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg, sweetened with brown sugar and studded with raisins. A tender crumb built on evaporated milk and topped with caramel frosting.

Lentil pheasant soup with wild game, earthy lentils, root vegetables, tomatoes, rosemary, and dry sherry. A hearty rustic hunter's soup worthy of a cold evening.