Black Pepper
Introduction
Black Pepper
Dried black pepper is a common spice used in European-style cuisine, and has been prized since ancient times for both its flavor and its medical value. The aroma of black pepper comes from the piperine it contains. Often referred to simply as "pepper", black pepper is one of the most widely used spices in the world and can be found on tables around the world, often alongside refined table salt.
Function
Piper nigrum is a perennial climbing vine in the Piperaceae family, native to the Malabar Coast of India. Its fruity flavor is spicy, is one of the earliest use of spices, may now be the most widely used spice. It is also used in medicine as an anthelmintic and for stimulating gastric secretion. Pepper in the tropical region of southeast Asia has a long and extensive cultivation history, has long been regarded as a good product. Is an important trade commodity between India and Europe, but also the medium of exchange. In ancient Greece and Rome also enlisted pepper as tribute. In the Middle Ages, the Venetians and Genoese monopolized the pepper trade, thus prompting people to find a way to the Far East.
Origin
Pepper is widely cultivated in the East Indies and has been introduced to Africa and the tropical regions of the Western Hemisphere. The plant has a woody stem and can climb up to 10 meters (33 feet) by means of aerial roots. The leaves are alternate, bright green and broad, and the flowers are small and pale, borne densely on slender spikes with about 50 flowers per inflorescence; the berry-like fruit is subglobose, about 5 mm (0.2 in) in diameter, yellowish-red when ripe, and contains one seed, which is aromatic and pungent. Pepper growth requires a long rainy season, moderate heat, and partial shade. It is usually planted in sprigs Piper nigrum (Piper nigrum) hand drawn
cultivated and planted next to trees or poles for support. It is also interplanted in tea or coffee plantations. 2?5 years later it begins to bear fruit and can be harvested for 40 years if conditions are favorable. The berries are picked when they turn red, immersed in boiling water for about 10 minutes, and turn dark brown or black after an hour. The berries are then spread on the mat or the ground to dry for 3-4 days. After drying and grinding, black pepper is obtained. After removing the outer skin, white pepper is obtained. Some areas of the preparation of white pepper is the method of wet berries stacked 2?3 days; or bag sinking into running water for about 7?15 days, so that the outer skin becomes soft, and then rinsed, rubbed or trampled to remove the soft skin, spread out in the sun, or can be used to mechanically grind the outer skin and preparation. White pepper is slightly less spicy than black pepper. Pepper contains essential oils 1?3%, essential oils make the pepper's aroma, spicy mainly produced by the oleoresin, the ingredients are: piperine (C17H19NO3), Jiawei alkali (C17H19NO3), piperidine [(CH2)5NH] and piperitin (C19H21O3N) and so on. There are many other families and genera of plants also known as pepper, such as soft hair Shaw frankincense (Schinus molle), also known as California pepper tree, tree-like snake grape (Ampelopsis arborea), also known as pepper vine, alder-leaved willow (Clethra alnifolia), also known as the sweet pepper shrub, etc., but are only cultivated as an ornamental plant and not as a Spice for food or medicine. It is cultivated in Guangxi, Guangdong and Yunnan in China. Autumn to the following spring when the fruit at the base of the cob begins to turn red, cut off the cob, sun-dried or dried, remove the fruit, because of the black-brown color, known as black pepper, aromatic, pungent taste.
Chemical content
Pepper contains essential oils 1?3%, essential oils make the pepper's aroma, the spicy flavor is mainly produced by the oleoresin, the composition of: piperine (C17H19NO3), Jiamicine (C17H19NO3), piperidine ［(CH2)5NH], and piperitin (C19H21O3N) and so on. There are many other families and genera of plants also known as pepper, such as soft hair Shaw frankincense (Schinus molle), also known as California pepper tree, tree-like snake grape (Ampelopsis arborea), also known as pepper vine, alder-leaved willow (Clethra alnifolia), also known as the sweet pepper shrub, etc., but are only cultivated as an ornamental plant and not as a spice for food or medicine.
Origin
It is cultivated in Guangxi, Guangdong and Yunnan in China. In the fall to the following spring when the fruit at the base of the cob begins to turn red, cut off the cob, sun-dried or dried, remove the fruit, because of the black-brown color, known as black pepper, aromatic, pungent taste.
Growing Methods
Pepper is a perennial woody vine, often climbing on trees, sticks or latticework to a height of up to four meters. Pepper has a trailing nature and roots quickly when the plant's stem touches the ground. The leaves of the pepper are alternate and entire, about five to ten centimeters long and three to six centimeters wide. The flowers of the pepper are small and bear spikes about four to eight centimeters long at the leaf nodes; the length of the spikes grows to seven to fifteen centimeters when the fruit ripens. Suitable soil for black pepper must not be excessively dry or susceptible to flooding or dampness, but must also have good drainage and be rich in organic matter. Propagation can be done by cutting off stems of about 40 to 50 centimeters in length and tying them to neighboring trees or latticework at about two-meter intervals; trees with rough bark will facilitate the climbing of the pepper vine. Plants in competition with pepper will be cut back, leaving only enough trees to provide shade and ventilation. Pepper roots will be covered with leaf mulch and fertilizer, and branches will be pruned twice a year. During the dry season for the first three years after planting, water will be applied every other day to the plants in dry soil. The plants produce fruit in the fourth or fifth year of planting and usually continue to bear fruit for seven years. Peppers produce 20 to 30 spikes on a single stem. Harvesting can begin when one or two berries at the base of the spike turn red; if left to ripen, the berries will lose their pungent flavor and eventually fall off and be lost. Harvested spikes are laid out in the sun to expose to the sun, and then the peppercorns will fall off the spikes.
Production
In 2005, Vietnam was the world's largest producer and exporter of pepper (90,000 tons). Other major pepper producers were India (70,000 tons), Indonesia (35,000 tons), Brazil (35,000 tons), Malaysia (19,000 tons), China (15,000 tons), and Sri Lanka (14,000 tons). Vietnam accounts for almost 50% of the world's pepper export market, and almost all of the pepper it produces is exported: in 2005, Vietnam exported 96,179 tons of pepper, India 15,800 tons, Indonesia 29,866 tons, Brazil 33,977 tons, Malaysia 17,044 tons, China 3,000 tons, and Sri Lanka 7,981 tons.
Edit Production Process
Processing
Black pepper is made from the unripe berries on the pepper vine. The berries are first boiled briefly in hot water for a few moments to clean their surface and prepare them for drying. At the same time the heat breaks down the cell walls of the fruit and accelerates the action of browning enzymes during the drying process. Over the next few days, the berries are exposed to the sun or dried in machines. During this process, due to the fungal reaction, the skin covering the seeds gradually darkens and shrinks, finally becoming a thin wrinkled layer. At the end of the drying process, the resulting product is black pepper seeds. White peppercorns are made from seeds from which the pericarp has been removed. White peppercorns are usually made from fully ripe berries, which are soaked in water for about a week, during which time the flesh part of the fruit softens and rots. The pulp residue is removed by rubbing and then the naked seeds are dried. There are other processing methods used to remove the pulp, including removing the outer skin of black peppercorns made from unripe berries. In the United States, white pepper is often used as a seasoning for foods such as light-colored sauces or mashed potatoes because black pepper is easily recognized in light-colored foods. There is some debate as to which is more pungent, black pepper or white pepper. The two types of peppers have different odors because some of the components of the outer skin cannot be found in the seeds.
The Finished Product
Green peppercorns, like black peppercorns, are made from unripe berries. After drying, the green pepper retains its green color to some extent because it has been treated with a process such as sulfur dioxide or freeze-drying. Pepper seeds that have been cured in brine or vinegar also take on a green color. Fresh, untreated pepper berries are very rare in the West, and they are mainly found in some Asian cuisines, especially Thai. [6] Fresh pepper berries have a pungent and refreshing odor with a strong aroma. Undried or pickled peppercorns rot away quickly. Rare red peppercorns can be made by pickling ripe red pepper berries in brine and vinegar; the color-preserving technique of drying green peppercorns can also be used for drying the rarer, ripe red peppercorns. The red peppercorn variety of pepper differs from the more common "red peppercorn," which is the fruit of the Peruvian peppercorn (Schinus molle) and its close relative, the Brazilian peppercorn (Schinus terebinthifolius), of a different family. In the past there was a debate about the safety of red pepper seeds as a food, but that debate has now been put to rest. Black pepper is not botanically related to the peppercorns called "Sichuan peppercorns". Peppercorns are often categorized according to their origin or port of shipment. The Malabar Coast of India produces two famous varieties: the Malabar pepper and the Dheerijri pepper. The Dheerijeli pepper is a premium pepper made from the largest and ripest berries (about 10% of the total berries) of the Malabar pepperwood in the Dheerijeli hills. Sarawak pepper is produced in the Malaysian part of Borneo, Lampung pepper is produced on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and Montauk pepper is produced on the Indonesian island of Bangka.
History
Applications as a spice
In India, pepper has been used as a spice since prehistoric times, and J. Innes Miller writes that, although pepper is also grown in southern Thailand and Malaysia, its primary source is in India, particularly in the coastal region of Malabar, in the present-day state of Kerala. Known as "black gold," peppercorns were a valuable trade good, and they were also used as physical currency. In English, the word "pepercorn" still carries the connotation of "rent in name only". The ancient history of black pepper is often associated (and confused) with peperomia. The Romans knew of both plants, but they only used the word "piper" to describe both. In fact, it wasn't until the arrival of the New World and the discovery of chili peppers that the piper fell out of favor with Europeans. The fact that some peppers were similar to the piper in shape and flavor when dried, and the fact that they could be cultivated in a much wider area, was a great convenience to the Europeans. Black pepper seeds have been found in the nostrils of the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses II, and must have been put in during the mummification ceremony shortly after the Pharaoh's death in 1213 BC. Little is known today about the use of pepper in ancient Egypt and the way it was transported from India to the Nile Valley. As early as the 4th century BC, the Greeks were aware of the existence of peppercorns and pulverizers: although pepper was most likely rare and expensive at the time, and only available to the very rich. In those days, pepper reached Europe by land trade or by waterways along the Arabian Sea. Wicker from southwestern India was more readily available than pepper from farther south; and because of the advantages of the wicker trade, and because of wicker's stronger aroma, its popularity may have exceeded that of black pepper in that era.
Made into a seasoning
Before the end of the Middle Ages, black pepper on the markets of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa came from the Malabar region of India. In the 16th century, pepper began to be cultivated in Java, the Sunda Islands, Sumatra, Madagascar, Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia, but most of the pepper grown in these areas was used for trade with China or to meet local demand. The Malabar region's ports are also transit ports in the Indian Ocean for the spice trade from the Far East. Black pepper, along with other commodities from India and the Far East, ushered in the era of geographical discovery and changed the course of world history. These precious commodities were one of the reasons that drove Europeans to seek new routes to India and establish colonies; at the same time, in the search for new routes, Europeans discovered and colonized the Americas. In the early years of the Roman Empire, especially after the first 30 years of the Roman conquest of Egypt, the trade routes across the Arabian Sea to reach the Malabar coast of South India became busy. The details of this trade route across the Indian Ocean are recorded in the Eritrean Voyages. According to the Greek geographer Strabo's account, the early Roman Empire would send a fleet of about 120 seagoing ships each year to engage in trade with India. The fleet crossed the Arabian Sea regularly each year to catch each year's monsoon. On its return voyage from India, the fleet would dock in ports on the Red Sea and be transported overland or by canal to the Nile River, and from there to the port of Alexandria, where it would be loaded onto ships for shipment to Italy and Rome. In the fifteen hundred years before the discovery of the new route, the trade of spices such as pepper to Europe followed much the same route. Black pepper was a well-known and widely used, albeit expensive, condiment during the time of the Roman Empire, and most of the recipes in the 3rd-century recipe book Apicius's De re coquinaria call for pepper. Edward Gibbon, in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, wrote that pepper was "a particularly common ingredient in most of the sumptuous Roman cookery."
The heyday
In ancient Europe, valuable peppers were often used as collateral and even currency. With the fall of the city of Rome, the delicacy of pepper (and the monetary value of pepper) was seized by conquerors. It is said that in the 5th century, both Alaric I of Visigoth and Attila the Hun demanded more than a ton of pepper from the city of Rome when they besieged it. After the fall of Rome, other nations became involved in the spice trade: first Persia, then Arabia; Innes Miller cites an account by the Byzantine writer Cosmas Indicopleitus, who traveled east to India, as evidence that "pepper was still being imported into Europe from India in the 6th century."[19] In the 5th century, pepper was still being imported into Europe from India. [19] At the end of the Dark Ages, Islamic forces controlled the middle route of the spice trade. Once in the Mediterranean, the trade was monopolized by Italian powers, especially in Venice and Genoa. The spice trade was largely responsible for the rise of these city-states. The status of black pepper in England at the time is reflected in a riddle attributed to St. Jaho, Bishop of Sherborne in the seventh century: " I am black and wrinkled on the outside, but inside I burn with fire. I'm the king of the table when it comes to flavors, sausages and tender meats. But you can't find out what I'm worth unless you look inside me." It is commonly believed that pepper was used in the Middle Ages to mask the rancid flavor of meat. However, there is no evidence to support this claim, and historians disagree: in the Middle Ages, pepper was a luxury item that only the rich could afford, and the rich obviously didn't eat rotting meat. Similarly, the claim that pepper was used on a large scale as a preservative is problematic: the compound piperine contained in pepper does have some antiseptic properties, but the concentration of piperine in peppercorns used as a spice is very low, and its impact is negligible. By contrast, salt is a much more effective preservative, and salted meats are common foods: especially in winter. However, meat preserved for long periods of time may need pepper and other spices to improve its flavor. In the Middle Ages, the extremely high price of pepper - and the fact that the trade in pepper in Europe was monopolized by the Italians - was an incentive for the Portuguese to seek new routes to India. 1498 saw Vasco da Gama become the first European to reach India by sea. Europeans to reach India by sea; asked by the Arabs of Calicut (who spoke Spanish and Italian) why they had come here, he replied, "We have come in search of Christians and spices." After completing this first voyage around southern Africa to reach India, large numbers of Portuguese poured rapidly into the Arabian Sea and seized absolute control of its trade with the mighty guns of their navy. This was the first expansion of European power into Asia, and it was legitimized (at least from the European point of view) by the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, which recognized Portugal's right to exclude half the world, including the source of pepper.
Related Historical Accounts
The Portuguese soon proved unable to control the spice trade. The Arabs and Venetians succeeded in smuggling large quantities of spices through the Portuguese blockade; so the old routes between Alexandria and Italy remained in place, in addition to new routes along Africa. In the 17th century, Portugal's position in the Indian Ocean was taken over by the Dutch and the English, and between 1661 and 1663 the pepper ports on the Malabar coast fell into Dutch hands. Scene of European traders harvesting pepper, from a drawing in Marco Polo's Travels The price of pepper began to fall due to the increase in the amount of pepper imported into Europe (although the total value of the import trade remained largely unchanged). Pepper, which in the early Middle Ages had been the exclusive preserve of the rich, began to find its way into the homes of ordinary people and became an everyday condiment. Pepper's share in the world spice trade increased to one-fifth. The Records of the Grand Historian (史记-西南夷列传) is probably the earliest record of pepper in China. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Tang Meng, the commander of Panyang, on a mission to South Vietnam in the sixth year of the reign of Jianyuan (135 years ago), and the king of South Vietnam treated Tang Meng with "berry sauce" and told him that "berry sauce" was transported from the place name of Yelang, the place name of the Yangtze River (the present-day Beipan River), to the town of Panyu, near the present-day city of Guangzhou. He told Tang Meng that the sauce was transported from the Yelang River to Panyu City (near present-day Guangzhou City). When Tang Meng returned to Chang'an, he learned from the merchants that the "berry sauce" in the Yelang market came from Shu (present-day Sichuan). [24] According to Li Shizhen's testimony, nowadays most think that "berry sauce" or "Konjac sauce" refers to the pepper plant Lou leaves [25], but there are some different views, such as the Western Jin Dynasty JI Han's "southern grasses and trees," which is considered to be Wicker [26], but also the descendants that it was black pepper [27]; in addition, there are some views that Konjac is Hovenia dulcis, wolfberry, or konjac [25]. Although pepper may have been known to China before the Wei and Jin dynasties, pepper was introduced to China on a large scale during the Tang Dynasty,[28] when Chancellor Yuan Zai was killed and copied because of bribery, there were eight hundred stones of pepper in the loot[29]. According to the Youyang Miscellany Chopper, "Pepper, out of the country of Mogadishu, called for the Mizui Zhi", people at that time had already begun to use pepper to flavor meat foods. [30][28] By the 12th century, black pepper had become a common seasoning in the dishes of the powerful and wealthy, even partially replacing the Chinese native seasoning pepper. The popularity of pepper in 13th-century China is illustrated by Marco Polo's description of what he learned about pepper consumption in the "city of heaven" (Kinsay, modern Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province): "...... Marco Polo learned from an official of the Khan's customs that forty-three quintals of pepper were marketed daily, while each quintal weighed two hundred and twenty-three pounds." [31] The text of Marco Polo's Travels to China is not very reliable, and the second-hand data given in the Travels are doubtful; but if the consumption of 10,000 pounds of pepper (about 4,500 kilograms) per day in a single city mentioned in the Travels is true, the amount of pepper imported into Europe at that time was but a drop in the bucket compared with that of China.
Editorial Value
Medicinal Applications
Like all Oriental spices, pepper has a long history of use as both a spice and a medicine. The more flavorful Pickerel is usually the drug of choice, although both Pickerel and Black Pepper are used as medicines. Black pepper seeds are used in India as a medicine in herbal, siddha, and Unani medicine.The 5th century Syriac Book of Medicines states that pepper (probably actually referring to Pickerel) is used to treat constipation, diarrhea, earache, gangrene, heart disease, hernia, hoarseness, indigestion, insect bites, insomnia, arthralgia, liver disease, lung disease, and abscesses in the mouth, sunburn, dental caries and toothache. In Chinese medicine, black pepper is used to treat cold phlegm, food accumulation, cold pain in the stomach and abdomen, regurgitation, vomiting of water, diarrhea, cold dysentery, and as a detoxification for food poisoning. many writings from the 5th century onward also suggest using pepper to treat eye ailments, usually by applying an ointment made from pepper directly to the eyes. In modern medicine, there is no evidence that these treatments are effective; applying pepper directly to the eyes is uncomfortable and may cause damage to the eyes. Pepper was for a long time thought to make people sneeze; it is thought to do so today. Some people think that piperine irritates the nostrils and thus makes one sneeze; others think it is the effect of the pepper, and still others feel that pepper is not a very effective sneeze-maker. However, almost no one has ever conducted experiments in a controlled environment to answer this question. Pepper should not be included in the recipes of patients who have undergone abdominal surgery or have abdominal ulcers because of its irritating effect on the intestinal tract: milder foods are usually substituted. Black pepper contains small amounts of safrole, a carcinogen.
Spice Citation
Pepper's pungency comes mainly from the compound piperine, which is found in both the rind and the seeds. On a milligram basis, refined piperine is about one percent as spicy as the capsaicin in peppers. The exocarp of the pepper also contains odor-producing terpenes such as pinene, hinokiene, benzylene, stigmasterol and linalool, which are the same substances that give lemons, trees and flowers their odor. The odor of peppercorns is lost as the chemicals evaporate, so storing them in an airtight container will help preserve their aroma over the long term. Exposure to light can also cause pepper to lose some of its flavor, as piperine is converted to the nearly odorless isopiperine. The pepper's aroma evaporates more quickly after it is ground; therefore, most cookbooks advise against grinding pepper seeds before use. Hand-held pepper mills, which mechanically grind or crush the seeds and make pepper powder, are also commercially available. Spice grinders such as pepper mills have been in European kitchens since the 14th century, although the use of a mortar and pestle to grind peppercorns was a common method earlier.
Aromatherapy
Black pepper has a strong, pungent flavor, and a little black pepper can be very therapeutic. It is especially used to instantly uplift the spirit and replenish energy. In addition aromatherapy in the clinical findings, black pepper essential oil of the pungent odor can not only melt the woman's sexual frigidity, the lack of interest in middle-aged men are equally effective, so it is a husband and wife to increase the interest is a wonderful **** bath essential oils.
Edit Other
Outlook
Pepper is the most widely traded spice in the world in terms of monetary value, with worldwide imports of pepper accounting for 20% of spice imports in 2002. The price of pepper is not stable and fluctuates greatly from year to year; for example, pepper imports in 1998 accounted for 39% of all spice imports. [40] The world trades slightly more chili peppers than peppers annually when measured by weight. The International Pepper Exchange is based in Kochi, India.
How to Serve
Pour about 500 ml of water into a pot (this is of course an indefinite value, and you can determine it according to your own needs) and bring the water to a boil. Pour the Gidley's White Pepper Seasoning into the pot, crack in one or two eggs, wait for the water to boil, and then put in the vegetables you need to cook, which has the advantage of reducing the evaporation of the oil of the peppercorns. This recipe is easy and perfect for today's society.