Herbs & Spices

Pepper / Kali Mirch

To this day, pepper remains the most important spice in the world in terms of volume and value and has thus inherited the name "the King of Spices". Heavily used in the West as the principal accompaniment to salt, it is a spice that finds uses in all corners of the globe - despite their love of chillies, even Latin Americans and South Asians will reach for peppercorns to flavour sauces, spice mixtures, marinades and much more.

Pepper has a history marred by fierce warfare, empire-building and protected trade routes. It is the principal reason for the development of the spice trade and yet pepper can be found to be peacefully growing in the very areas where it was the cause of much bloodshed.

There are two types of peppercorns: black peppercorns come from green fruits and white peppercorns from red fruits. The unripe green fruits are fermented for a short time, then sun-dried during which time, they desiccate, become hard, and adopt a dark brown to black colour. The red fruits are picked when almost ripe, then soaked to soften and loosen the outer skin. Once this outer skin is removed, they are rinsed and sun-dried, forming white peppercorns.

The flavour is down to the peppers essential oil content. Black pepper both emits a woody, fresh aroma and has pungency, whereas the oils of white pepper tend to be removed during the cleaning process, giving it little aroma but sufficient pungency.

The essential oil and piperine content of peppers vary with their origin so this difference between black and white pepper can be broken down further. Pepper of the best quality can be found from the Indian Malabar coast, from where pepper first came into Europe over 3,000 years ago. Pepper here has a sharp fruity aroma.

Tellicherry peppers are those with the largest berries and Indonesian lampong pepper has more piperine and less essential oil giving it little aroma but more pungency. Sarawak pepper from Malaysia has a milder aroma than Indonesian pepper but is hot and biting; Brazilian pepper has low piperine content and is somewhat bland; and the Vietnamese variety is light in colour and is mild. Bear in mind though, that wherever the pepper comes from, when ground it will quickly lose its flavour and aroma, so it is best to store it in a pepper mill so that it can be grounded only when being used.

Pepper is a spice that will go well with any spice mix or dish. It is, however, essential to the garam masala spice blend and is often used in other masalas as it enhances the flavour of other spices whilst never losing its own flavour or dominating others. As such, it is a spice that is truly invaluable in Indian or any other cuisine from around the world.

Did you know?
Pepper was the reason America was discovered as Columbus actually set out to find India, because the valuable spice, pepper was said to grow there.