The Science of Spice

184 Spice Profiles

Black pepper is native to southern

India and has been cultivated and

traded for over 3,500 years. In the 4th

century bce, after Alexander the Great

had reached India, black pepper was

brought to Europe along newly

established trade routes. The highly

valued spice quickly became

commercially important, and Arab

traders established a monopoly on its

transport to Europe. By the Middle

Ages, black peppercorns had not only

become a culinary status symbol, but

were also accepted as currency. The

Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama

set off to find and take control of the

source of this costly spice, and

discovered a sea route to southwest

India in 1498. For the next century

the Portuguese controlled the black

pepper trade. In the 17th century they

lost their monopoly to the Dutch, who

lost it to Britain in the 18th century,

when the British Empire took control

of the spice trade in the tropics.

Region of cultivation

Black pepper is native to the Malabar coast of

southwest India. It is now cultivated mainly

in Vietnam, but also in India, Indonesia,

Malaysia, and Brazil.

The plant

Peppercorns come

from a perennial tropical

climbing vine in

the pepper

family.

Whole black

Black peppercorns are dried with their

browned, aromatic outer layer intact.

Green pepper is less fiery and has more

abundant herbaceous flavours.

Whole white

The outer layer of white pepper is stripped

by bacterial fermentation, leaving it harsher,

less aromatic, and with dung-like nuances.

Vines are

pruned to 3–4m

(10–13ft) in

cultivation

Berries develop from

whitish green flowers

borne on spikes

BOTANICAL NAME

Piper nigrum

ALSO KNOWN AS

Peppercorn.

MAJOR FLAVOUR COMPOUND

Piperine.

PARTS USED

Dried berries, known as “peppercorns”.

METHOD OF CULTIVATION

The berries are harvested from vines at

different stages of maturity.

COMMERCIAL PREPARATION

Underripe berries are either blanched

and left to darken and dry for black

pepper, or picked earlier and preserved

without darkening for green pepper. Pink

pepper is picked after fully ripening.

NON-CULINARY USES

In traditional medicine as a digestive aid.

INDIA

MALAYSIA

INDONESIA

VIETNAM

BLACK PEPPER

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