I was curious how our use of black pepper came to be. One of my favorite Wikipedia articles chronicles history's utterances of the same question:
History of Pepper
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Re: History of Pepper
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the linked article: As a Preservative: The value of pepper as a natural preservative for meat and other perishable foods has been known for centuries. Studies have shown that this is due to the anti-oxidant and anti-microbial properties present in pepper.
Haha thanks, serves me right for skimming, I guess. I couldn't come up with any examples of foods preserved using black pepper obviously, but that might just be cultural filtering (I'm from northern Europe). Googling says "jams, pickles, preserves and candies" which was not very helpful.
JFYI in Italy (in the North) there are a number of ham-like products that are essentially "covered" in pepper, example:
https://www.menatti.com/en/prodotto/peppered-prosciutto-crud...
But usually most hams have the "cut" part covered in ground salt and black pepper anyway.
Re: History of Pepper
#23We only had pre-ground white or black pepper when I was growing up but as a young adult, I discovered that pepper has much more flavour when freshly ground. Since then, I’ve wondered why I don’t ever see white pepper-corns for sale. This article answered the question for me:
> Black pepper tastes strongest when freshly ground although pre-ground pepper is often used in seasonings for convenience. White pepper is less aromatic than black pepper but has special applications, as in white sauces where black pepper would give them an undesirable speckled appearance
For what it’s worth, when cooking a white sauce, I just live with the speckled appearance – though I could be tempted to try see how it tastes with pre-ground white pepper.
Re: History of Pepper
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are, they’re just not mainstream medicine.
If we allow for 'not mainstream medicine', why then are they stopping at those three? Why not include the spells and potions that might include pepper? Why not the treatments you or I could just make up on the spot in a work of fiction? If we expand the definition of medicine to include nonsense, the term would lose all meaning. As a society we demand medicine be 'things proven to work' and all those things they list…
Piperine, an extract from black pepper, is known to increase absorption of nutrients in the gut. A study on PubMed shows increases of curcumin absorption by 2000% after taking piperine. Personally, I have noticed great effects when I take piperine in combination with other compounds. I got here from studying ancient Chinese medicine.
Re: History of Pepper
#25As an aside, if anyone is looking for an absolutely insane pepper mill, get the Männkitchen Pepper Cannon. You will never need another one. It's a big solid hunk of aluminum, stainless steel burrs, and puts out 5-10x the amount that other mills do per crank. Easier to adjust fineness of grind than any other mill out there. Evenness of grind is also superior. It has changed my entire life in the kitchen.
How’s this better than a $15 mortar and pestle?
I mean for $200 let’s mill that bitch out of a solid block of Ti and give it tungsten carbide burrs…okay that’s probably a $1000 kitchen status symbol.
Re: History of Pepper
#26As an aside, if anyone is looking for an absolutely insane pepper mill, get the Männkitchen Pepper Cannon. You will never need another one. It's a big solid hunk of aluminum, stainless steel burrs, and puts out 5-10x the amount that other mills do per crank. Easier to adjust fineness of grind than any other mill out there. Evenness of grind is also superior. It has changed my entire life in the kitchen.
How’s this better than a $15 mortar and pestle? I mean for $200 let’s mill that bitch out of a solid block of Ti and give it tungsten carbide burrs…okay that’s probably a $1000 kitchen status symbol.
A grinder has at least two significant features missing from a mortar and pestle: you have easy control over the fineness of the grind, and you can measure rough quantity in number of turns. Plus a grinder is generally handier for a bit of pepper on this or that.
Re: History of Pepper
#27As an aside, if anyone is looking for an absolutely insane pepper mill, get the Männkitchen Pepper Cannon. You will never need another one. It's a big solid hunk of aluminum, stainless steel burrs, and puts out 5-10x the amount that other mills do per crank. Easier to adjust fineness of grind than any other mill out there. Evenness of grind is also superior. It has changed my entire life in the kitchen.
I use one of these, for $13:
https://www.oxo.com/pepper-mill-437.html
I've bought two more for folks whose kitchens I occasionally cook in. It puts out a massive rain of pepper with a comfortable cranking motion. I would not trade it for a $200 pepper grinder.
Re: History of Pepper
#28One interesting side note is that in the land of origin of pepper in India, to a very large extent Chilli has replaced pepper as the spiciness creating ingredient in most household and restaurant dishes. Chillies of course come from Mexico and are another colonial import. Pepper is now used only in a very few mostly traditional Indian dishes.
Well, chilli grows far more easily than black pepper, and consequently is far more affordable, even today. Secondly, it takes far more black pepper by weight to induce any kind of burn. Thirdly, they taste very different.
The widespread use of chilli as a spice in Indian cooking would also have an economic aspect to it, I'm sure.
Fun fact: the one place (speaking for Southern India) where you're likely to find cooking that uses only indigenous (pre-chilli -- ergo pre 16th century) ingredients is any kind of Hindu religious ceremony or celebration associated with death, be it a funeral or a death anniversary. That stuff tastes OK, some of it is great. All told, I'd rather have food tainted by "modern" ingredients than not.
Edit: qualified the "celebrations and ceremonies" bit
Re: History of Pepper
#29We only had pre-ground white or black pepper when I was growing up but as a young adult, I discovered that pepper has much more flavour when freshly ground. Since then, I’ve wondered why I don’t ever see white pepper-corns for sale. This article answered the question for me: > Black pepper tastes strongest when freshly ground although pre-ground pepper is often used in seasonings for convenience. White pepper is less…
I've also discovered, not surprisingly, that there's a wide quality range for peppercorns. Good, fresh peppercorns are not just stronger, but have a wider range of flavors, like floral notes. This [1] is what's in my peppermill now, and I'm really enjoying it -- no affiliation with B&B, but I've enjoyed everything I've bought from them.
[1] https://www.burlapandbarrel.com/collections/peppercorns/prod...
Re: History of Pepper
#30I’m always amazed by our ability to adopt and normalize once “exotic” spices, commodities etc and then pretend they were always a part of our culture so much so that we forget where they even came from. One of the UK’s most popular tea brands “Yorkshire Gold” evokes nostaligia for rural England when it really comes from Africa or India.
Your comment reminded me of this quite amusing exchange between Yorkshire Tea and a fully paid up member of the Brexiteer Wingnut Order:
https://www.indy100.com/viral/brexit-yorkshire-tea-not-grown...