After reading this article a few years ago I mail ordered some Long Pepper to try at home. I love black pepper's flavor and am always looking for better kinds of pepper; the idea there's a related spice that's "better" was exciting to me.
No such luck. The flavor was nice but definitely milder than high quality black peppercorns. And not appreciably different. I mean maybe I got unlucky and got a stale batch or something, but I wasn't impressed. An added drawback is long pepper has a lot more plant material; the interior of each pepper is pretty fibrous and flavorless. Works OK with a spice grinder but not great. I ended up not using very much of it before turning most of it into extract. Eventually I threw it out.
> I love black pepper's flavor and am always looking for better kinds of pepper;
If you haven't yet, I'd recommend trying fresh green peppercorn, which is actually same species as what we commonly know as black peppercorn – except unripe. I had a great pleasure in trying multiple dishes incorporating it when I traveled to Vietnamese Phu Quoc island, where they also grow it in abundance. It's astonishing how differently it tastes, especially considering you actually get to consume whole grains, thanks to their milder spiciness. Much recommended.
My mother used to make an artichoke and green peppercorn sauce, a homemade mayonnaise base as I recall. The green peppercorns are cracked in a mortar and pestle, not ground.
I'll have to ask her for the recipe and make it sometime, it was great.
The stuff I've had is noticeably sweeter, but with a nicer, lighter flavor. And yeah, theres really no better way to use it than with a spice grinder, but thats pretty much true of any dried spice.
Im really curious what you mean by 'the interior'... did you try and put them whole into something?
Anyhow, the quality/age/handling of the spice you get is very strongly going to determine whether or not you're getting the real deal. Spices can oxidize quickly.
Anyhow, I think long pepper is fantastic and shines really well in certain applications ( mostly those where its really contrasted by food that doesnt already have a strong flavor profile, like, a hard boiled egg or mashed potatoes.)
Long pepper is easily available on amazon and sometimes shows up at upscale supermarkets as an "exotic spice."
I have to disagree that the flavor isn't "appreciably different." I've bought multiple batches for use whole in broths and stews, and every time I've been struck by its strong, distinctive, and maybe even divisive aroma. I find the smell of it sweeter, more savory, and for lack of a better word, smelly. A bag of long pepper smells like walking into an old woman's kitchen used over a lifetime of cooking.
I would very much recommend tracking down some cubeb (tailed) pepper if you haven't already tried it -- I feel like it's what I wanted long pepper to be. It's got a wonderfully allspice-y note and is particularly great in a Bloody Mary.
Presumably black pepper cost considerably more than the locally produced (Europe) long pepper. So it kind of makes sense that black pepper had to be substantially 'better' than long pepper for it become popular.
The rule of thumb I know is that you need about twice the amount of long pepper compared to black pepper. Check, if this works for you.
There is another thing which I like to do: bite off a little bit of long pepper, leave it in your mouth, and wait. The flavour changes several times. If that does not happen, then you have got a bland sample, I guess.
Long pepper is an exceptional expectorant. Add it to soups when you have sniffles. In fact, in South India long pepper is used more for folk cures for colds and such than as a culinary ingredient.
Even black pepper is good. Drink tea with black pepper. If you have a lot of cough with phlegm, just chew 10-12 black pepper seeds (peppercorns?) - of course it’s hot but it clears up the phlegm quickly.
Does anyone know what it's called in India, in any Indian language. I ask since it looks like it's native to India but I'd never heard of long pepper before this article and now I'm intrigued..
I'd recommend watching Max Miller's Tasting History on youtube - it's a fun nerdy diversion of old cooking, which includes old, rare, and unusual spices.
I wonder why white pepper is so underappreciated. My grandparents never had black pepper in their house. They considered it "foreign". White pepper is very distinctive and, because it's white, you can put it in béchamel sauces or mashed potato.
To a first approximation, white pepper is simply "peeled" black pepper (the peppercorns that are used to make white pepper are also harvested later, but apart from this, as far as I'm aware, the main difference is that white pepper contains only the inner seed). White pepper is spicier and misses some of the flavor notes of black pepper due to the removal of the skin, but otherwise they are not that dissimilar I think.
I thought white pepper was more common in the British empire - it's what I grew up having on the table. I still keep a bottle around - I feel like it's sweeter and spicier.
What amazes me the most about spices (and other exotic crops) and their history is that we were willing to commit genocide to get them. But then again, it's not too hard to see parallels with some of today's products.
Well, commit genocide to get the money. People usually object to connecting the genocide directly to the consumer products. You need shady middlemen, such as the X East India companies, to launder in between the two.
Black pepper is a key ingredient in sambar masala, chaat masala, it's added to most garam masala, cracked pepper rice is quite common. Black peppercorns are added with other seeds to flavor oil (tadka), it's everywhere!
Most black pepper is grown in India, black pepper is native to India. Why would you think this?
Absolutely not. We use pepper in every meal while cooking. Omeletes, Chutney, Sambar, Pongal. In fact I do not remember a single day where I had food without Pepper and Cumin mixed in some form.
North indian cuisine doesnt use black pepper...but south indian cuisine does. in fact it is the core ingredient in rasam and sambhar (two of the most iconic every day dishes).
all the south indian curries use it.
P.S. also during traditional south indian festivals, you cook dishes exclusively with black pepper - never chillies.
No such luck. The flavor was nice but definitely milder than high quality black peppercorns. And not appreciably different. I mean maybe I got unlucky and got a stale batch or something, but I wasn't impressed. An added drawback is long pepper has a lot more plant material; the interior of each pepper is pretty fibrous and flavorless. Works OK with a spice grinder but not great. I ended up not using very much of it before turning most of it into extract. Eventually I threw it out.
If that doesn't dissuade you, you can order more long pepper than you're likely to use for about $11 from an online store in Chicago: https://www.thespicehouse.com/products/long-pepper