| Pepper Recipes |
Subtly Ubiquitous
To look at the small dried berry of the pepper plant, it’s difficult to imagine the worldly influence it has rendered. Its puny size is totally out of proportion to the impact it has made through history. Pepper was once so rare and valuable that it was actually used as currency; it built and destroyed wealthy civilizations. It’s also influenced our language: foods are often described as being peppery, and wines too are sometimes said to have a pepper finish. Who knows, if pepper weren’t such a sought after spice at one time, there may have been a different "discoverer" of America. It was pepper, after all, that Columbus was seeking when he stumbled upon America. Thinking he had found a shorter route to India, he tasted fresh chilies and dubbed the fruit "chili peppers." The Aztec name for the spicy pod is chilli, there is no relation to them and black pepper. Long before America had its almost insatiable appetite for spicy foods, and there was a proliferation of trendy chilies, there was black pepper. Pepper is - as it has for a very long time - in almost every savory dish.
Pepper has also inspired great minds. Mark Twain, for example, after returning from a trip abroad, wrote that the French didn’t know how to season food....that they didn’t use enough black pepper. (Obviously he had never heard of steak au poivre.) The author enjoyed pepper to such an extent that he would often dust enough of the fresh-ground spice onto a steak that he could still feel it long after it had reached his stomach. He said it cleared his mind and inspired his thoughts.
Indigenous to Southern India, pepper was introduced to the western world by Alexander The Great in the 4th century BC. It was then that the black spice began to firmly establish itself in most of the world’s cuisines. It seems that pepper has conquered more of the world than Alexander himself. Pepper has always been the most sought after spice.
In addition to being available whole and in various grades of grind, pepper can also be purchased in three forms: black, white and green.
Black pepper is the fruit of the Piper Nigrum (pepper vine) which is harvested unripe and dried. When the pepper berries are picked fresh they are green, drying them at moderate temperatures turns the berry black. When the fresh peppercorns are dried quickly at higher temperature or pickled in brine, they remain green. White pepper is simply black pepper with the outer layer removed. The pungency, or spiciness, is strongest in black pepper and weakest in green pepper; white pepper is much more aromatic than black.
What is particularly interesting about pepper is its ability to be incorporated into every course of a meal, even dessert. One can sample such delicacies as raspberry-black pepper sorbet, black pepper-vanilla ice-cream and, of course, the famous pfeffernusse, German for "peppernuts" or pepper flavored cookies.
Once ground, pepper loses its flavor and pungency rather quickly. It’s much more beneficial to purchase your pepper in the whole berry form and grind or crack the pepper just before you need it. A quality pepper-mill is strongly suggested.
Pepper Recipes
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