Black Pepper

Common Names: Kali Mirch, Black Pepper
Botanical Name: Piper nigrum L.

Black Pepper also known as a peppercorn, is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. Ground, dried, and cooked peppercorns have been used since antiquity, both for flavor and as traditional medicine. Black pepper is the world’s most traded spice and is one of the most common spices added to cuisines around the world. Its spiciness is due to the chemical compound piperine, which is a different kind of spicy from the capsaicin characteristic of chili peppers. It is ubiquitous in the Western world as a seasoning and is often paired with salt and is available on dining tables in shakers or mills.

A riddle authored by Saint Aldhelm, a seventh-century Bishop of Sherborne, sheds some light on black pepper’s role in England at that time:

• I am black on the outside, clad in a wrinkled cover,
  Yet within I bear a burning marrow.
• I season delicacies, the banquets of kings, and the luxuries of the table,
  Both the sauces and the tenderized meats of the kitchen.
• But you will find in me no quality of any worth,
  Unless your bowels have been rattled by my gleaming marrow.