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A pinch of spice history

A pinch of spice history

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a plant of the Piperaceae family, cultivated for its fruits. which are dried and used as spices. The same plant, changing only the cultivation method and processing procedures, is used to produce white pepper, black pepper and green pepper.

The plant has come from South India and is widely cultivated in India and in tropical countries. The ripe fruit is a dark-colored grape, about 5 millimeters in diameter, and contains only one seed.

Pepper is one of the most used spices in European cuisines and its derivatives have been recognized and valued in antiquity for their flavor and influence as an ayurvedic medicine. Piperine gives it its spicy taste.

Black pepper is simply called pepper, it is found on all tables, in every country of the world, often next to salt. The word pepper comes from the so-called pippali. It morphs into pepper in Latin and pepper in Old English. The Latin term is also translated into German pfeffer, French poivre, and Dutch peper as well as other similar languages.


Varieties of pepper and similar spices

* Black pepper it comes as a product of the unripe fruit of the pepper plant. The fruits are put in hot water to wash and prepare for drying. The color of the grain during drying helps to distinguish the type of pepper. The seeds are dried in the sun or with suitable equipment for a few days, during which the seeds become hard and black, hence the name black pepper. Black pepper is also distinguished by production countries such as: India, Malabar, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries.

* White pepper it is created only from the seed of the fruit. It is obtained by placing it in water. In this case the chip softens and can be easily removed. By removing the shell aside to preserve the fruit, the seed is allowed to dry. Numerous processes are used to eliminate the skin from the fruit, that is, removing the black skin of the pepper. Black pepper is the most commonly used, while white pepper is used more in the preparation of colored sauces, where the color of the black pepper remains visible.

* Green pepper, like black, is produced from the unripe fruit. In the drying process, it is treated with sulfur dioxide in order to preserve the green color of the fruit.
* Green pepper preserved as a pickle is an unripe pepper and is preserved with vinegar. In native and Asian cuisines, particularly Thai cuisines, it is generally used as pepper in unripe pods freshly picked from the plant.

* Gray pepper two different products are known by this name:
1) a mix of finely ground black and white pepper.
2) cubeba, part of the cubeba pepper plant.

* Red pepper or false Peruvian pepper is a grape, red in color with a taste similar to that of pepper, of a tree of the genus Schinus.

* Long pepper grape of the pepper plant, very similar in taste to black pepper, but elongated in shape.

* Mixed Creole of white pepper, black pepper, green pepper, red pepper.

* Clove pepper it is the type that mistakenly resembles pepper because of its name (which means exactly pepper in Spanish).

* Sichuan pepper grape of an Asian plant in the genus Zanthoxylum.

Pepper plant

The pepper tree is a perennial plant that reaches about 4 meters in height. Its leaves are long and reach up to 10 centimeters in length and 3 to 6 centimeters in width. The flowers are small and bloom at the nodes of the stem, about 8 centimeters from the leaf stem. The fruits grow about 7-15 centimeters long above the leaves. The pepper tree grows in very dry but also wet places, in poor and rich places with chemical fertilizers.

The plants reach a length of about 50 cm and can creep up the trunks of nearby trees or can be extended along the wall. The fruits hatch and are harvested twice a year. In dry places, the plant should be watered every two days during the first three years, in the hot months.

Plants produce fruit from the fourth to fifth year and continue for up to seven years. Spices are selected for the quality of their fruits and for their longevity. A single root produces on average 20-30 shoots. The harvest starts, the grapes turn red and before that they reach ripening. The fruits left on the branch fall by themselves and are no longer valuable. The collected grains are placed in the sun to dry.

Historical dinner

Pepper has been used as a spice in India since prehistoric times. It was cultivated for the first time in Malabar (India). Pepper was a blessed commodity and was often called black gold because it was used as a medium of exchange. The history of black pepper is often confused with long pepper. The ancient Romans preserved some fruit seeds that often confused the succession of other separate species.

Since the discovery of the American continent, the chili pepper, the long pepper began to be planted until its extinction. Chili pepper, which is very similar in shape to long pepper, was easier to cultivate and transport until black pepper was found in Europe, the Orient, southern Africa and came from Indian countries, from Malabar. In the 16th century, pepper was also imported from Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia and other countries of Southwest Asia.

Black pepper and several other types produced in India and Asian countries changed the history of the world. From the precise origin of the spices sought for centuries which is the European one, it differs in the Indian countries that constantly colonized the cities, as it had happened before with the American continent.

Pepper in antiquityt

A peppercorn was found in the nostrils of the mummified body of Pharaoh Rameses II buried in 1212 AD. There is little information about the use of pepper in antiquity. Black pepper and long pepper were known in Greece before the XNUMXth century BC, a little known but very expensive plant that only the rich could afford.

The directions of the routes at that time were of course the land routes and sea routes for navigation in the Arabian Sea. Long pepper which grew in northwest India was less expensive than black pepper. This also led to the beginning of pepper trading
black.

By the time of the Roman Empire, specifically after the building of Egypt by Rome in the 30s AD, passage from the Indian Ocean to the Malabar Islands was quite common. Details of this trade across the Indian Ocean were permitted by Peri plus Maris Erythraei. According to the Roman histories Strabo, the first Empire sent a fleet of 120 ships on a regular round trip to India.

The fleet timed the voyage through the Arabian Sea in order to take advantage of the monsoons that hit the area several months of the year. On the return journey the ships passed through the Red Sea, from here they were transported by land or by sailing on the Nile Canal to the Nile River, and then to Alexandria. From here they left for Rome.

This commercial journey from India to Europe starts the trade of Pepper for the next 1500 years. From the frequent trade of ships with Malabar islands, black pepper was traded more compared to long pepper, thus its price became more suitable. /Telegraph/

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