Pepper

“ The pungent taste and peculiar smell of pepper are familiar to all. [Pg 580]
Microscopic Structure—The transverse section of a grain of black pepper exhibits a soft yellowish epidermis, covering the outer pericarp. This is formed of a closely-packed yellow layer of large, mostly radially arranged, thick-walled cells, each containing in its small cavity a mass of dark brown resin. The middle layer of the pericarp consists of soft, tangentially-extended parenchyme, containing an abundance of extremely small starch granules and drops of oil. ”

“ Long pepper is derived from two shrubby plants, Piper officinarum, C.D.C., a native of the Archipelago, and Piper longum, L., indigenous in Malabar, Ceylon, E. Bengal, Timor, and the Philippines. Long pepper is the fruit-spike gathered and dried when not quite ripe (Hanbury and Flückiger, Pharmacographia) . All these kinds of pepper were, as has been said, known to the ancients. ”

“ Of all the varieties of spices used as a condiment, pepper is the only one which grows on a climbing vine, and there is no kind of spice better known or more esteemed or more extensively used than pepper. ”

“ Why, would you believe it, this must be the little paper of black pepper I had in my pack. Lub was asking for some this morning, while cooking breakfast; and when he handed it back to me I must have dropped it in my pocket without thinking what I was doing, meaning to put it on the shelf when I stood up. Hurrah! if ever a pinch of pepper was worth its weight in gold that time is now. ”

“ All the species of pepper possess a strongly aromatic smell, and a hot, pungent taste. The long sort, being the most powerful, is generally employed for medicinal purposes: the black is chiefly used in culinary preparations. On account of their heating and stimulating properties, however, the use of every sort requires some circumspection.
Pepper is an excellent spice, which should always be coarsely ground, and eaten only with fat, smoked, or tough animal food ”

“ Take a gill of sack and a quarter of an ounce of whole white pepper, put it in and boil it together for a quarter of an hour, then strain out the pepper, and put in as much double-refined sugar as will make it like a paste, then drop it, in what shape you please, on a tin plate, and let it dry itself. ”

“ The active properties of pepper are an acrid resin,51 a volatile oil, and a crystallizable, colorless substance called pipertine, or peperic. Why white pepper should be preferred before the black is one of the anomalies of the trade. White pepper has really only about a quarter the strength of black pepper, and is the least economical to use for these reasons: (1) Because of being allowed to ripen it loses much of its pungency. (2) Because it is deprived of the outer skin or husk, which contains much of the constituents which go to make good pepper. ”

“ A kind called tobacco pepper is said to possess the most pungent properties of any of the species. It yields a small red pod generally less than an inch in length, and is longitudinal in shape, mostly borne above the leaves, and is so exceedingly hot that a small quantity of it is sufficient to season a large dish of any food. ”

“ Stuffed red peppers:—Open the pepper, take out the seeds and wash and dry carefully. Boil and then chop fine as much fresh pork as you will need to stuff your peppers. In a dish of hot lard put the meat with plenty of fine-cut tomatoes and onions, salt and pepper. Boil a few moments, then add a little sugar, cloves, cinnamon, almonds, and raisins cut in half, cook a little, then fill the peppers. If you have eight peppers beat three eggs, whites and yolks separately; when well beaten put together, and in this roll the peppers, having first sprinkled over them a little flour. ”

“ Pepp′er-grass, any plant of genus Lepidium; Pepp′eriness; Pepp′ermint, a species of mint, aromatic and pungent like pepper: a liquor distilled from the plant: a lozenge flavoured with peppermint—Peppermint-drop, a confection so flavoured; Pepp′er-pot, a West Indian dish, of cassareep, together with flesh or dried fish and vegetables, esp. green okra and chillies: tripe shredded and stewed, with balls of dough and plenty of pepper; Pepp′er-tree, a shrub of the cashew family, native to South America, &c.—also Pepper shrub and Chili pepper ”

“ A species of long pepper is found in great plenty, but it has little of the aromatic flavour that makes spices valuable; and a tree, much like a palm at a distance, is pretty frequent in the woods, though the deceit appears as you come near it. ”

“ In structure it does not bear a close resemblance to black pepper, as its pepper corns, or berries, and husks all harden together on a long, central, irregular, climbing stem, much in the same way that in the pines the seed and covering are all hardened into one cone. It not only has more woody fiber but brings with it much more sand, which is found imbedded in the crevices of the irregular fruit, than is found in ordinary pepper. ”

“ It grows with numerous leaves, like our pot herbs, and climbs up the trees, producing the pepper in clusters like our grapes. When these are ripe, they are of a green colour, and, being gathered, are laid in the sun to dry, after which they are put into earthen vessels for sale. ”

“ The inhabitants of India drink water in which long pepper has been infused, and esteem it a valuable remedy for some disorders of the stomach. They also distil an ardent spirit from it; and they pickle this fruit in vinegar, for use at table.
The fruit that is collected for exportation is gathered before it is quite ripe.
22. BETEL is the leaf of a climbing East Indian plant (Piper betel) which belongs to the same tribe as pepper; and, in shape and appearance, is not much unlike that of ivy, but is more tender, and full of juice. ”

“ The black pepper is not as simple in its arrangement as the white, the maturity of the white giving it distinctness, while the shrunken character of the black berry makes the recognition of its various tissues difficult. ”

“ Pepper. “The third thing is Pepper, a sauce for vplandish folkes: for they mingle Pepper with Beanes and Peason. Likewise of toasted bread with Ale or Wine, and with Pepper, they make a blacke sauce, as if it were pap, that is called pepper, and that they cast vpon theyr meat, flesh and fish.” ”

“ Although the white pepper has the name of being a superior article, it is not. It is very true that only the marrow of the black pepper berries can be used to make white pepper, and the product does have an exquisite flavor; but since the greater strength lies in the outer cover, there is some doubt as to the quality of the white pepper. Moreover, the real goodness of the pepper is, in fact, not improved by this process, as the water injures its strength, the outer husk contains more of the aroma, and the quality of the pepper removed is almost proportionate to the weight of the pepper corn. ”

“ If that be plucked from the tree before they gape and open of themselves, they make that spice which is called Long pepper; but if as they do ripen, they cleave and chawne by little and little, they shew within the white pepper: which afterwards beeing parched in the Sunne, chaungeth colour and waxeth blacke, and therewith riveled also.... Long pepper is soone sophisticated, with the senvie or mustard seed of Alexandria: and a pound of it is worth fifteen Roman deniers. ”

“ The white pepper is merely the black deprived of its outside skin. For this purpose the finest red berries are selected, and put in baskets to steep, either in running water, or in pits dug for the purpose, near the banks of rivers. Sometimes they are only buried in the ground. ”

“ The pepper-corns grow in bunches close to each other. They are first green, but afterwards turn black. When dried they are separated from the dust and partly from the outward membranous coat by means of a kind of winnow, and are then laid up in warehouses. The white pepper is the same production as the black. ”

“ The long pepper men clepe Sorbotin, and the black pepper is clept Fulfulle, and the white pepper is clept Bano. The long pepper cometh first when the leaf beginneth to come, and it is like the cats of hazel that cometh before the leaf, and it hangeth low. And after cometh the black with the leaf, in manner of clusters of raisins, all green. And when men have gathered it, then cometh the white that is somedeal less than the black. And of that men bring but little into this country; for they beyond withhold it for themselves, because it is better and more attempre in kind than the black. ”

“ Long pepper, referred to by the Greeks as piperi macron, is the unripe fruit of a species of pepper, an inch or more in length and and shaped like a spike. The flavor is similar to that of ordinary black pepper. African pepper is another variety. Those best known to the western markets are Penang, Tellicherry and Malabar.
Cumin or cummin is a small herbaceous plant, native to Egypt and very early cultivated in the Mediterranean countries. It is now grown in India, Sicily and Malta, the seeds only being valuable. ”

“ In a short time, boil up the vinegar again, add pepper and ginger in the above proportion, and instantly cover them up. Tie them down with bladder, and in a few days they will be fit for use.
[Illustration: LONG PEPPER.]
LONG PEPPER.—This is the produce of a different plant from that which produces the black, it consisting of the half-ripe flower-heads of what naturalists call Piper longum and chaba. It is the growth, however, of the same countries; indeed, all the spices are the produce of tropical climates only. ”

“ Gather the large bell pepper when quite young, leave the seeds in and the stem on, cut a slit in one side between the large veins, to let the water in; pour boiling salt and water on, changing it every day for three weeks—you must keep them closely stopped; if, at the end of this time, they be a good green, put them in pots, and cover them with cold vinegar and a little turmeric; those that are not sufficiently green, must be continued under the same process till they are so. Be careful not to cut through the large veins, as the heat will instantly diffuse itself through the pod. ”

“ It is supported much as hops are. When the berries on a spike begin to turn red they are gathered, as they lose pungency if they are allowed to ripen. They are placed on mats, and are either trodden with the feet or rubbed by the hands to separate them from the spike, after which they are cleaned by winnowing. Black pepper consists of such berries wrinkled and blackened in the process of drying, and white pepper of similar berries freed from the skin and the fleshy part of the fruit by being soaked in water and then rubbed. ”

“ PEPPER POT. Cut small pieces of any vegetables, and add pieces of smoked or salt beef, and also of any cold poultry, roast beef or mutton, stew all these together in two or three quarts of water, according to the quantity of meat, &c. It must be seasoned highly with whole peppers, allspice, mace, Jamaica pickles, and salt; it must be thoroughly stewed, and served, without straining, in a tureen. ”

“ The quantity of pepper in the mixture is increased gradually, until two heaping teaspoonfuls are used. Addition of a little brown sugar and a few drops of pure olive oil is beneficial, and a small quantity of hot red pepper gives a better flavor. The food should be prepared fresh each day, and in mixing allowance must be made for variation in the size of eggs used. ”

“ The ash in black peppers does not exceed from 4-10 to 7-10 per cent., and in white, 4-10 per cent.; it is fair to believe that anything above 5 per cent. for black and 2 per cent. for white is suspicious. The volatile oil, to which pepper owes its flavor, varies in black pepper from 1.69 to .70, and in white 1.26 to .57 are found, but this determination is not of great value as a means of detecting adulterations.
Piperine, which is a neutral crystalline substance, and resin, to which the pepper owes its pungency, of which it yields about two per cent. ”

“ Cut off the tops and scoop out the seeds of six peppers, chop an extra pepper without seeds, mix with it a small onion chopped, a cupful of chopped tomato, two tablespoonfuls of butter or salad oil, a teaspoonful of salt, and an equal measure of bread crumbs. Stuff the peppers, replace the stem ends, and bake the peppers for half an hour, basting them with butter or salad oil two or three times. Serve them hot as a vegetable. ”

“ The fruit grows so close together on the spike that when ripe they become one solid mass. There is also a variety of long pepper called elephant pepper. Long peppers are mostly used for pickles. A medium, called Pippua moola, is made from the roots and stems; it is very stimulating.
Cubeb peppers are the berries of the vine Cubeb officinalis, a product of Java, Borneo and Sumatra, but mostly imported by way of Batavia and Canton. They are of a gray color, about the size of black pepper, somewhat longer, more wrinkled and with a short slender stalk. They have a hot, camphor taste. ”

“ From what has been said, we can readily understand that the quality of pepper differs in the different localities. Pepper will hold its strength longer than any other spice. It has been found by mixing Malabar for weight, Penang for strength, and Sumatra for color, we get the most desirable powdered article. Malabar pepper has about twice the strength of Singapore, which has twice the strength of Sumatra. ”

“ In the southwest of India, where pepper grows wild, it is found in rich, moist soil, usually in narrow valleys. It propagates itself by running along on the ground and throwing off shoots every few feet. The natives, in caring for it, merely tie the ends of the vines to trees at distances at least six feet apart, and especially to those having a rough bark, as the vine readily clings to the rough surface of the tree. ”