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History of Pepper

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Re: History of Pepper

#31

Post by AareyBaba »

unwind wrote: post #16
caseyohara wrote: post #11

Earlier 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.

Pastrami, Italian sausage

Re: History of Pepper

#32

Post by walrus01 »

sfifs wrote: post #13

One 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.

Something interesting to think about is that the potato has become an essential and staple food in some places like the central mountain highlands of Afghanistan, but it didn't exist there prior to sailing ship contact between the "new world" and "old world".

How exactly the potato made it there from Spanish, Portugeuse and early English expeditions around 1500, and the lag time until it became commonplace there I am not quite clear.

Re: History of Pepper

#33

Post by pottertheotter »

Bud wrote: post #2

As 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.

FWIW, I've had the Cole & Mason Derwent pepper miller for 5 years and have liked it. For $50, I'm not sure I use it enough to make up for the extra $150 the Männkitchen costs. It's cool though!

If I have a lot of pepper to grind, I'd use an electric spice grinder.

Re: History of Pepper

#34

Post by ars »

jasone wrote: post #8
unwind wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure pepper has preservative properties? Any link/reference would be appreciated, I hadn't heard of that before. A quick check of Wikipedia didn't find anything either.

I recall reading about spice being used to mask the flavor of food starting to go bad. It's not a preservative function, rather it allows people to eat poor-tasting-but-not-yet-poisonous food.

That's a myth that won't go away: http://livingthehistoryelizabethchadwick.blogspot.com/2013/0...

Re: History of Pepper

#35

Post by twright »

I think a lot about this Trevor Noah bit [1] with a good punchline about the historic and modern importance of spices. I’d be interested what the article means by “[de Gama’s discovery of spices on Malabar] destroyed the economies of Alexandria, Genoa and Venice“ If you liked reading this article I recommend Kurlansky’s book “Salt: A History of the World”.

[1] https://youtu.be/BOt5SmHf2aE

Re: History of Pepper

#36

Post by rdtsc »

stickfigure wrote: post #27
Bud wrote: post #2

As 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.

Yup! That’s the one I use. Best so far for price and ease of cranking. Others might take less turns, however this one I can just spin nonstop until the steak is covered in pepper if I want.

If it breaks, I will just get another one for $13.

Re: History of Pepper

#37

Post by elangoc »

mangamadaiyan wrote: post #28
sfifs wrote: post #13

One 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 cookin…

The thing about chili peppers is that they're not healthy (have medicinal benefits) in the way peppercorn and long pepper do. Capsaicin can be harmful in large quantities, IIUC.

There are South Indian foods and snacks like venpongal and methu vadai that use whole peppercorn, not chili peppers. Tomato is another colonialism byproduct, but there are still people who make versions that use lemons instead of tomatoes. A common homemade drink for sick people is made from grinding dried ginger, coriander seeds, and black pepper. These are all daily foods. But you're right, few households or restaurants are 100% free of these 400 year old import crops.

Obviously, chili pepper is used where peppercorn or ground black pepper used to be, for the reasons in the parent comment. It also makes sense that black pepper would have been used in various dishes because it enhances the potency of the medicinal properties of turmeric by an order of magnitude. It wouldn't be hard to go back to black pepper, I imagine, with a little retooling of recipes to rebalance flavors.

Re: History of Pepper

#38

Post by dtgriscom »

hammock wrote: post #10
Bud wrote: post #2

As 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.

A similar pepper mill, made in the USA (not China) for a lower price: Unicorn Mills Magnum ($59) http://www.unicornmills.org/magnum-plus.html I have not tested either, though I have heard of the Mannkitchen Pepper Cannon and from what I know it is probably the best one you can get if you are not concerned with price. We are talking high-volume output, only one or two pumps needed per dish. Or as they say in the marke…

I was about to recommend this very mill. Have had it for just shy of 14 years, and it still makes great grinds.

Re: History of Pepper

#39

Post by dtgriscom »

elangoc wrote: post #37
mangamadaiyan wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 cookin…

The thing about chili peppers is that they're not healthy (have medicinal benefits) in the way peppercorn and long pepper do. Capsaicin can be harmful in large quantities, IIUC. There are South Indian foods and snacks like venpongal and methu vadai that use whole peppercorn, not chili peppers. Tomato is another colonialism byproduct, but there are still people who make versions that use lemons instead of tomatoes. A…

> Capsaicin can be harmful in large quantities, IIUC.

Citation?

Re: History of Pepper

#40

Post by chupchap »

sfifs wrote: post #13

One 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.

Pepper is still used a lot in Kerala, but I agree with you that red and green chilies are used more commonly.
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