Spice Guide Entry For: Black Pepper

This is the description page for Black Pepper (Piper nigrum) and includes a description as well as an image, if available and a selection of recipes from this site that relates to the spice: Black Pepper.

Black pepper represents the dried fruit of the flowering vine, Piper nigrum a member of the Piperaceae (pepper) family. The pepper vine is a native of south-western India and has been traded from there since prehistory. In early Europe pepper was so valuable that it was often used as collateral or even currency. The exorbitant price of pepper during the late middle ages (due to the virtual monopoly Venice had on the trade) was one of the reasons for the early Protugese voyages of discovery. Even today pepper is the world's most widely-traded spice and in Europe at least you will find pepper side-by-side with salt on every dinner table.

The pepper plant is a perennial woody vine growing to four metres in height on supporting trees, poles, or trellises. It is a spreading vine, rooting readily where trailing stems touch the ground. The leaves are alternate, entire, five to ten centimetres long and three to six centimetres broad. The flowers are small, produced on pendulous spikes four to eight centimetres long at the leaf nodes, the spikes lengthening to seven to 15 centimetres as the fruit matures. A single stem will bear 20 to 30 fruiting spikes. The harvest begins as soon as one or two berries at the base of the spikes begin to turn red, and before the fruit is mature, but when full grown and still hard; if allowed to ripen, the berries lose pungency, and ultimately fall off and are lost. The spikes are collected and spread out to dry in the sun, then the peppercorns are stripped off the spikes. This produces black pepper, the dried still-unripe green fruit of the pepper vine. The berries are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the fruit, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. White pepper in contrast is made from only the seed of the pepper fruit. The outer fruit wall is removed by allowing fully ripe berries to soak in water for about a week, during which time the flesh of the fruit softens and decomposes. Rubbing then removes what remains of the fruit, and the naked seed is dried. Green pepper, like black, is made from the unripe berries. Dried green peppercorns are treated in a manner that retains the green colour, such as treatment with sulphur dioxide or freeze-drying. Pickled peppercorns, also green, are unripe berries preserved in brine or vinegar. Pink pepper can also be made by preserving ripe red pepper berries preserved in brine and vinegar. (This pink pepper should not be confused with the more familiar dried 'Red Peppercorns' which are not true peppercorns at all.

Pepper gains its spicy heat from the piperine compound which is present both in the seed and the outer fruit (which is why most people believe white pepper to be milder than black pepper). In reality piperine is about one hundredth the strength of capsaicin found in chilli peppers. Pepper loses flavour and aroma through evaporation, so airtight storage helps preserve pepper's original spiciness longer. Pepper can also lose flavour when exposed to light, which can transform piperine into nearly tasteless isochavicine. Once ground, pepper's aromatics can evaporate quickly; most culinary sources recommend grinding whole peppercorns immediately before use for this reason. The Romans where very fond of using pepper in all their dishes including desserts and in Europe pepper is so commonplace that it is used with salt to season most savoury dishes and is also used as a condiment at the table.

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