Assuming salt is not a spice, what is your kitchen’s most important spice? If you said, black pepper, then you are a true cook. No spice is more important or influential than black peppercorns in the entirety of food history. Since pepper began to be known in the West, it was the most valuable spice, period. It has been cultivated for 2000 years and is the most traded spice in the world. At one time, peppercorns could even be used as currency. Pepper goes with everything. It can even lend a zing to our dessert. This pungent and vibrant little gem is used almost as often as salt. It has been used since ancient times as a seasoning and as medicine. And yet, it occurs to me that most of us don’t even know what a pepper plant looks like. Most people think peppercorns grow on trees! So, here are some facts about the pepper plant and some big old pictures!
First, let’s not confuse “pepper plant” with “chile plant.” It’s unfortunate that Chiles got stuck with the label peppers. Not for you, but for me, who has to write about this stuff. Black pepper, or Piper nigrum, is native to the Malabar Coast of India. Peppercorns are the fruits (stone fruits or drupes) of a woody climbing vine that grows up along trees, poles, trellises, or anything else that can give it support. The plant has heart-shaped leaves that are glossy green. Its flowers are small and grow in long spikes, with a white or yellow color. The stone fruits, which are the peppercorns, grow in bunches and start out green before red. Then, when the fruits are dried, they become the black pepper we are most familiar with.
Piper nigrum is at home in tropical climates that have high humidity and consistent warmth. It tends to grow best in well-drained and rich soil. You’ll often see manure and mulch covering the roots of cultivated plants.
The fruits are harvested when they turn red and then the fruits are dried. Different processes produce different colored peppercorns.
- When the whole fruit is dried, the result is the black peppercorns we use most often. peppercorns.
- When the outer layer of the fruit is removed before drying, the white seed is left, producing white peppercorns.
- When the fruits are picked in their green unripe state and dried, we get green peppercorns. These are sometimes pickled.
Most often, when white and red peppercorns are sold, it is part of a peppercorn mixture of all three colors, white, red, and black.
Don’t be confused by Pink peppercorns. These are not true peppercorns but the dried berries of a different plant, often the Peruvian or Brazilian pepper plant. Sichuan pepper, also called Sichuan peppercorns, have a pink to red color but are also from a different plant.
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