Black pepper and its Varieties

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the pepper family, cultivated for its fruit (peppercorns), which are often sun-dried and used as a spice and condiment.The fruit is a drupe (drupe), about 5 mm (0.20 in) in diameter (fresh and fully ripe), dark red, and contains a pit enclosing a pepper seed.Zanthoxylum bungeanum and the peppercorns from which it is derived can be simply described as peppercorns, or more precisely black peppercorns (boiled and sun-dried unripe fruits), green peppers (sun-dried unripe fruits) or white peppercorns (ripe fruits seed).Black pepper is native to the Malabar coast of India where Malabar pepper is widely grown there and in other tropical regions.Ground, sun-dried and boiled peppercorns have been used in seasoning and traditional medicine since ancient times.Black pepper is the most traded spice in the world and one of the most commonly used spices in cuisines around the world.Its spiciness is due to the chemical compound piperine, which is a different pungency than the one characteristic of capsaicin. It is ubiquitous in the western world as a condiment, often paired with salt, served in a shaker.

Etymology

The word pepper is derived from Old English pipor, Latin piper, and Greek: πέπερι, which is of Eastern origin,possibly from the Dravidian pippali, meaning "long pepper".Sanskrit pippali has the same meaning.In the 16th century, people began to use pepper to refer to the unrelated New World peppers (Capsicum genus)

Variety

Processed peppercorns come in a variety of colors, any of which can be used in food preparations,especially regular peppercorn sauce.

Black pepper

Black pepper is extracted from the unripe drupe of the pepper plant.The drupes are briefly boiled in hot water to clean them and prepare them for drying.The heat breaks down the cell walls of the peppers, speeding up the work of the browning enzymes during the drying process.The drupe is dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which time the pepper skin around the seed shrinks and turns black, becoming a thin, wrinkled black layer.Once dried, this spice is known as black pepper.On some estates, the berries are separated from the stems by hand and sun-dried without boiling.After the pepper is dried, the berries can be crushed to extract pepper essence and pepper oil.Pepper essence is used in many medicinal and cosmetic products.Pepper oil is also used as an Ayurvedic massage oil and in certain cosmetic and herbal remedies.

White pepper

White pepper consists only of the seeds of the ripe fruit of the pepper plant, with the dark thin skin (pulp) of the fruit removed.This is usually done through a process called retting, in which fully ripe red pepper berries are soaked in water for about a week, which softens and breaks down the pepper pulp; rubbing removes the remains of the fruit, and the bare seeds are dried.Sometimes the outer layer is removed from the seed by other mechanical, chemical or biological methods.White pepper is commonly used in Chinese,Thai and Portuguese cuisine.It is occasionally used as a substitute for black pepper in salads, light sauces, and other dishes such as mashed potatoes, where black pepper can stand out.However, white pepper lacks certain compounds present in the outer layer of the stone fruit, resulting in a different overall flavor profile.

Green pepper

Green peppers, like black peppers, are made from unripe drupes.Dried green peppercorns are processed in a way that preserves the green color, such as sulfur dioxide, canned, or freeze-dried. Pickled peppercorns, also green, are immature drupes preserved in brine or vinegar.Fresh, unpreserved green pepper stone fruits are used in some dishes, such as Thai and Tamil cuisine.Their taste is described as "spicy and fresh" with a "bright aroma".If not dried or preserved, they will rot quickly, making them unsuitable for international shipments.

Red pepper

Red peppercorns usually consist of ripe peppercorns preserved in brine and vinegar.Ripe red peppercorns can also be dried using the same color-preserving techniques used to produce green peppers.

Pink pepper and other plants

Pink peppercorns are the fruit of the Peruvian pepper tree Schinus molle or its close relative the Brazilian pepper tree Schinus terebinthifolius, which come from a different family (Anacardiaceae).Since they are members of the cashew family, they may cause allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, in people with tree nut allergies.The bark of Drimys winteri ("canelo" or "winter's bark") is used as a pepper substitute in cold and temperate regions of Chile and Argentina, where it is readily available and readily available.In New Zealand, the seeds of kawakawa (Piper excelsum), a close relative of black pepper, are sometimes used as pepper; the leaves of Pseudowintera colorata (“mountain horopito”) are another pepper substitute.Several plants in the United States are also used as pepper substitutes, such as peppercorns, at least peppercorns, shepherd's purse, horseradish, and peppercorns.