SALT:
Definition: Today salt is inexpensive and universally available, but that wasn't always the case. Because of its importance in food preservation and the fact that the human body requires it (for the regulation of fluid balance), salt has been an extremely valuable commodity throughout the ages. It was even once used as a method of exchange--Roman soldiers received a salt allowance as part of their pay. Salt was valued by the ancient Hebrews and Greeks, throughout the Middle Ages and well into the 19th century when it began to become more plentiful and therefore reasonable in price. Salt (sodium chloride) comes either from salt mines or from the sea. Most of today's salt is mined and comes from large deposits left by dried salt lakes throughout the world. Table salt, a fine-grained refined salt with additives that make it free-flowing, is mainly used in cooking and as a table condiment. Iodized salt is table salt with added iodine (sodium iodide)--particularly important in areas that lack natural iodine, an important preventative for hypothyroidism. Kosher salt is an additive-free coarse-grained salt. It's used by some Jews in the preparation of meat, as well as by gourmet cooks who prefer its texture and flavor. Sea salt is the type used down through the ages and is the result of the evaporation of sea water--the more costly of the two processes. It comes in fine-grained or larger crystals. Rock salt has a grayish cast because it's not as refined as other salts, which means it retains more minerals and harmless impurities. It comes in chunky crystals and is used predominantly as a bed on which to serve baked oysters and clams and to combine with ice to make ice cream in crank-style ice-cream makers. Pickling salt is a fine-grained salt used to make brines for pickles, sauerkraut, etc. It contains no additives, which would cloud the brine. Sour salt (see citric acid), also called citric salt, is extracted from acidic fruits, such as lemons and limes. It's used to add tartness to traditional dishes like borscht. Seasoned salt is regular salt combined with other flavoring ingredients, examples being onion salt, garlic salt and celery salt. Salt substitutes, frequently used by those on low-salt diets, are products containing little or no sodium.
Edible salt, also called table salt or just salt, is a mineral, one of a very few rocks commonly eaten by humans. There are different forms of edible salt: unrefined salt, refined salt, table salt or iodised salt. It is a crystalline solid, white, pale pink or light grey in colour, obtained from sea water or from rock deposits. Sea salt comes in fine or larger crystals. In nature, it includes not only sodium chloride, but also other vital trace minerals. Edible rock salts may be slightly greyish in colour due to this mineral content.
Salt is necessary for the survival of all living creatures, including humans. Salt is involved in regulating the water content (fluid balance) of the body. Salt flavor is one of the basic tastes. Salt cravings may be caused by trace mineral deficiencies as well as by a deficiency of sodium chloride itself.
Salt is required for life, but overconsumption can increase the risk of health problems, including high blood pressure, in those individuals who are genetically predisposed to hypertension. In food preparation, salt is used as a preservative and as a seasoning.
History of edible salt
Main article: History of salt
Salt's preservative ability was a foundation of civilization. It eliminated dependency on the seasonal availability of food, allowed travel over long distances, and was a vital food additive. However, because salt(NaCl) was difficult to obtain, it became a highly valued trade item throughout history. Until the 1900s, salt was one of the prime movers of national economies and wars. Salt was often taxed; research has discovered this practice to have existed as early as the 20th century BC in China.
In the empire of Mali, merchants in 12th century Timbuktu—the gateway to the Sahara Desert and the seat of scholars—valued salt (NaCl) enough to buy it for its weight in gold; this trade led to the legends of the incredibly wealthy city of Timbuktu, and fueled inflation in Europe, which was exporting the salt.
[edit] Forms of edible salt
[edit] Unrefined salt
Main articles: Sea salt, Halite, and Fleur de sel
Different natural salts have different mineralities, giving each one a unique flavor. Fleur de sel, natural sea salt harvested by hand, has a unique flavor varying from region to region.
Some assert that unrefined sea salt is more healthy than refined salts. There are concerns, however, that raw sea or rock salts may not contain sufficient iodine salts to prevent iodine deficiency diseases like goitre.
[edit] Refined salt
Refined salt, that is most widely used presently, is mainly sodium chloride. Only about 7% of refined salt is used as a food additive. The majority is sold for industrial use, from manufacturing pulp and paper to setting dyes in textiles and fabric, to producing soaps and detergents, and has great commercial value.
The manufacture and use of salt is one of the oldest chemical industries. Salt is also obtained by evaporation of sea water, usually in shallow basins warmed by sunlight; salt so obtained was formerly called bay salt, and is now often called sea salt or solar salt. Today, most refined salt is prepared from rock salt: mineral deposits high in edible salt. These rock salt deposits were formed by the evaporation of ancient salt lakes. These deposits may be mined conventionally or through the injection of water. Injected water dissolves the salt, and the brine solution can be pumped to the surface where the salt is collected.
After the raw salt is obtained, it is refined to purify it and improve its storage and handling characteristics. Purification usually involves recrystallization. In recrystallization, a brine solution is treated with chemicals that precipitate most impurities (largely magnesium and calcium salts). Multiple stages of evaporation are then used to collect pure sodium chloride crystals, which are kiln-dried.
Anticaking agents (and potassium iodide, for iodised salt) are generally added at this point. These agents are hygroscopic chemicals which absorb humidity, keeping the salt crystals from sticking together. Some anticaking agents used are tricalcium phosphate, calcium or magnesium carbonates, fatty acid salts (acid salts), magnesium oxide, silicon dioxide, sodium alumino-silicate, and alumino-calcium silicate. Concerns have been raised regarding the possible toxic effects of aluminium in the latter two compounds, however both the European Union and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permit their use in regulated quantities. The refined salt is then ready for packing and distribution.
[edit] Table salt
Single-serving salt packets
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Single-serving salt packets
Table salt is refined salt, nearly pure (95% or greater) sodium chloride. It usually contains substances that make it free flowing (anticaking agents) such as sodium silicoaluminate as well as a minute amount of invert sugar to prevent the salt from turning a yellow colour when exposed to sunlight, and to prevent a significant loss of iodine via vaporization. It is common practice to put a few grains of uncooked rice in salt shakers to absorb extra moisture when anticaking agents are not enough. Table salt is also often iodised—a small amount of potassium iodide is added as an important dietary supplement. Table salt is mainly employed in cooking and as a table condiment. Iodised table salt has significantly reduced disorders of iodine deficiency in countries where it is used. Iodine is important to prevent the insufficient production of thyroid hormones (hypothyroidism), which can cause goitre, cretinism in children, and myxedema in adults.
Table salt is now used all over the world.
In European countries where fluoridation of drinking water is not practiced, some brands of fluorinated and iodised table salt are available. In Germany, 60% of sold table salt contains sodium or potassium fluoride. Another additive, especially important for pregnant women is Folic acid (B vitamin) giving the table salt a yellow color.
[edit] Health effects
Sodium is one of the primary electrolytes in the body. All three electrolytes (sodium, potassium, and calcium) are available in unrefined salt, as are other vital minerals needed for optimal bodily function. Too much or too little salt in the diet can lead to muscle cramps, dizziness, or even an electrolyte disturbance, which can cause severe, even fatal, neurological problems.[1] Drinking too much water, with insufficient salt intake, puts a person at risk of water intoxication. Salt is even sometimes used as a health aid, such as in treatment of dysautonomia.[2]
People's risk for disease due to salt intake that is too low or too high varies, due to biochemical individuality. In fact, some have asserted that while the risks of consuming too much salt are real, the risks have been dramatically overhyped for most people, or that the studies done on the consumption of edible salt can be interpeted in many different ways.[3] [4]
Nevertheless, salt has been studied extensively by researchers and many of them believe that salt can be consumed in excess and can therefore lead to health problems.
For example, salt consumption has been linked to exercise-induced asthma.[5] On the other hand, another source counters, "…we still don't know whether salt contributes to asthma. If there is a link then it's very weak…".[6] Excessive salt intake may also trigger heartburn[7]. The role of salt in the causation or exacerbation of osteoporosis is similarly plausible. One report shows that a high salt diet does reduce bone density in girls.[8]. Yet "While high salt intakes have been associated with detrimental effects on bone health, there are insufficient data to draw firm conclusions." ([9], p3) Gastric cancer (Stomach cancer) is associated with high levels of sodium, "but the evidence does not generally relate to foods typically consumed in the UK." ([9], p18)
Studies have clearly shown a link between an overabundance of salt in the diet and hypertension (high blood pressure). "Since 1994, the evidence of an association between dietary salt intakes and blood pressure has increased. The data have been consistent in various study populations and across the age range in adults." ([9] p3). "The CMO [Chief Medical Officer] of England, in his Annual Report (DH, 2001), highlighted that people with high blood pressure are three times more likely to develop heart disease and stroke, and twice as likely to die from these diseases than those with normal levels."([9], p14). Professor Dr. Diederick Grobbee claims that there is no evidence of a causal link between salt intake and mortality or cardiovascular events.[10]. One study found that low urinary sodium is associated with greater risk of myocardial infarction among treated hypertensive men [11]. Additionally, in a study of left ventricular hypertrophy (cardiac enlargement), "Evidence suggests that high salt intake causes left ventricular hypertrophy, a strong risk factor for cardiovascular disease, independently of blood pressure effects." ([9] p3) "…there is accumulating evidence that high salt intake predicts left ventricular hypertrophy." ([12], p12) Excessive salt (sodium) intake, combined with an inadequate intake of water, can cause hypernatremia. It can exacerbate renal disease.[1]
A decrease in salt intake has been suggested to treat many health conditions as well, such as edema (BE: oedema) (fluid retention).[13][1]
[edit] Recommended intake
This section summarizes the salt intake recommended by the health agencies of various countries. Recommendations tend to be similar. Note that targets for the population as a whole tend to be pragmatic (what is achievable) while advice for an individual is ideal (what is best for health). For example, in the UK target for the population is "eat no more than 6g a day" but for a person is 4g.
Intakes can be expressed variously as salt or sodium and in various units.
* 1g sodium = 1,000mg sodium = 42 mmol sodium = 2.5g salt
United Kingdom: In 2003, the UK's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) recommended that, for a typical adult, the Reference Nutrient Intake (the amount you need) is 4g salt per day (1.6g or 70 mmol sodium). However, average adult intake is two and a half times the Reference Nutrient Intake for sodium. "Although accurate data are not available for children, conservative estimates indicate that, on a body weight basis, the average salt intake of children is higher than that of adults." SACN aimed for an achievable target reduction in average intake of salt to 6g per day (2.4g or 100 mmol sodium) — this is roughly equivalent to a teaspoonful of salt. The SACN recommendations for children are:
* 0–6 months old: less than 1g/day
* 7–12 months: 1g/day
* 1–3 years: 2g/day
* 4–6 years: 3g/day
* 7–10 years: 5g/day
* 11–14 years: 6g/day
SACN states, "The target salt intakes set for adults and children do not represent ideal or optimum consumption levels, but achievable population goals."[9]
Republic of Ireland: The Food Safety Authority of Ireland endorses the UK targets "emphasising that the RDA of 1.6g sodium (4g salt) per day should form the basis of advice targeted at individuals as distinct from the population health target of a mean salt intake of 6g per day."([12], p16)
Canada: Health Canada recommends an Adequate Intake (AI) and an Upper Limit (UL) in terms of sodium.
* 0–6 months old: 0.12g/day (AI)
* 7–12 months: 0.37g/day (AI)
* 1–3 years: 1g/day (AI) 1.5g/day (UL)
* 4–8 years: 1.2/day (AI) 1.9g/day (UL)
* 9–13 years: 1.5g/day (AI) 2.2g/day (UL)
* 14–50 years: 1.5g/day (AI) 2.3g/day (UL)
* 51–70 years: 1.3g/day (AI) 2.3g/day (UL)
* 70 years and older: 1.2g/day (AI) 2.3g/day (UL)[14]
New Zealand
* Adequate Intake (AI) 0.46 – 0.92g sodium = 1.2 – 2.3g salt
* Upper Limit (UL)) 2.3g sodium = 5.8g salt[15]
Australia: The recommended dietary intake (RDI) is 0.92g–2.3g sodium per day (= 2.3g–5.8g salt)[16]
USA: The Food and Drug Administration itself does not make a recommendation[17] but refers readers to Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005. These suggest that US citizens should consume less than 2,300 mg of sodium (= 2.3g sodium = 5.8g salt) per day. [18]
[edit] Labeling
The FDA Food Labeling Guide stipulates whether a food can be labelled as "free", "low", or "reduced/less" in respect of sodium. A food that exceeds 480mg of sodium per 'serving' must have a disclosure statement.[19]
[edit] Campaigns
In 2004, the Food Standards Agency started a public health campaign called "Salt - Watch it", which recommends no more than 6g of salt per day; it features a character called Sid the Slug and was criticised by the Salt Manufacturers Association (SMA).[20] The Advertising Standards Authority did not uphold the SMA complaint in its adjudication.[21].
[edit] Salt substitutes
Salt intake can be reduced quite easily by simply reducing salty foods in one's diet. Salt substitutes have a taste similar to table salt and contain mostly potassium chloride, which will increase potassium intake. Because excess potassium intake can cause potentially fatal hyperkalemia, it is advisable to check with one's physician and pharmacist before using salt substitutes. Various diseases and medications may decrease the body's excretion of potassium, thereby increasing the risk of hyperkalemia. If you have kidney failure, heart failure or have diabetes, you should not use a low salt variety without medical advice. A manufacturer, LoSalt, has issued an advisory statement.[22] that people taking the following prescription drugs should not use a salt substitute: Amiloride, Triamterene, Dytac, Spironolactone, Aldactone, Eplerenone, and Inspra.
PEPPER:
Definition: Most cooks today don't appreciate the plentiful and inexpensive supply of a spice that was once so valuable and rare it was sometimes used as currency. Its merit was so high that many of the European sailing expeditions during the 15th century were undertaken with the main purpose of finding alternate trade routes to the Far East, the primary source of the prized peppercorn and other spices. Pepper in one form or other is used around the world to enhance the flavor of both savory and sweet dishes. Because it stimulates gastric juices, it delivers a digestive bonus as well. The world's most popular spice is a berry that grows in grapelike clusters on the pepper plant (Piper nigrum), a climbing vine native to India and Indonesia. The berry is processed to produce three basic types of peppercorn--black, white and green. The most common is the black peppercorn, which is picked when the berry is not quite ripe, then dried until it shrivels and the skin turns dark brown to black. It's the strongest flavored of the three--slightly hot with a hint of sweetness. Among the best black peppers are the Tellicherry and the Lampong. The less pungent white peppercorn has been allowed to ripen, after which the skin is removed and the berry is dried. The result is a smaller, smoother-skinned, light-tan berry with a milder flavor. White pepper is used to a great extent for appearance, usually in light-colored sauces or foods where dark specks of black pepper would stand out. The green peppercorn is the soft, underripe berry that's usually preserved in brine. It has a fresh flavor that's less pungent than the berry in its other forms. Black and white peppercorns are available whole, cracked and coarsely or finely ground. Whole peppercorns freshly ground with a pepper mill deliver more flavor than does preground pepper, which loses its flavor fairly quickly. Whole dried peppercorns can be stored in a cool, dark place for about a year; ground pepper will keep its flavor for about 4 months. Green peppercorns packed in brine are available in jars and cans. They should be refrigerated once opened and can be kept for 1 month. Water-packed green peppercorns must also be refrigerated but will only keep for about a week. Freeze-dried green peppercorns are also available and can be stored in a cool, dark place for up to 6 months. See also cayenne pepper; pink peppercorn; Szechuan pepper.
Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The same fruit is also used to produce white pepper and green pepper.[1] Black pepper is native to South India and is extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is a small drupe five millimetres in diameter, dark red when fully mature, containing a single seed.
Dried, ground pepper is one of the most common spices in European cuisine and its descendants, having been known and prized since antiquity for both its flavour and its use as a medicine. The spiciness of black pepper is due to the chemical piperine. Ground black peppercorn, usually referred to simply as "pepper", may be found on nearly every dinner table in some parts of the world, often alongside table salt.
The word pepper is derived from the Sanskrit pippali,[2] via the Latin piper and Old English pipor. The Latin word is also the source of German pfeffer, French poivre, Dutch peper, and other similar forms. In the 16th century, pepper started referring to the unrelated New World chile peppers as well. Pepper was used in a figurative sense meaning "spirit" or "energy" at least as far back as the 1840s; in the early 20th century, this was shortened to pep.
Black pepper is produced from the still-green unripe berries of the pepper plant. The berries are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the fruit, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The berries are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the fruit around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer around the seed. Once dried, the fruits are called black peppercorns.
White pepper consists of the seed only, with the fruit removed. This is usually accomplished by allowing fully ripe berries to soak in water for about a week, during which time the flesh of the fruit softens and decomposes. Rubbing then removes what remains of the fruit, and the naked seed is dried. Alternative processes are used for removing the outer fruit from the seed, including removal of the outer layer from black pepper produced from unripe berries.
Black pepper is the most common, while white pepper is mainly used in dishes like light-coloured sauces or mashed potatoes, where ground black pepper would visibly stand out. There is disagreement regarding which is generally spicier. They do have differing flavours due to the presence of certain compounds in the outer fruit layer of the berry that are not found in the seed.
Black, green, pink, and white peppercorns
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Black, green, pink, and white peppercorns
Green pepper, like black, is made from the unripe berries. Dried green peppercorns are treated in a manner that retains the green colour, such as treatment with sulphur dioxide or freeze-drying. Pickled peppercorns, also green, are unripe berries preserved in brine or vinegar. Fresh, unpreserved green pepper berries, largely unknown in the West, are used in some Asian cuisines, particularly Thai cuisine.[4] Their flavour has been described as piquant and fresh, with a bright aroma.[5] They decay quickly if not dried or preserved.
A rarely seen product called pink pepper or red pepper consists of ripe red pepper berries preserved in brine and vinegar. Even more rarely seen, the ripe red peppercorns can also be dried using the same colour-preserving techniques used to produce green pepper.[6] Pink pepper from Piper nigrum is distinct from the more-common dried "pink peppercorns", which are the fruits of a plant from a different family, the Peruvian pepper tree, Schinus molle, and its relative the Brazilian pepper tree, Schinus terebinthifolius. Sichuan peppercorn is another "pepper" that is botanically unrelated to black pepper.
Peppercorns are often categorised under a label describing their region or port of origin. Two well-known types come from India's Malabar Coast: Malabar pepper and Tellicherry pepper. Tellicherry is a higher-grade pepper, made from the largest, ripest 10% of berries from Malabar plants grown on Mount Tellicherry.[7] Sarawak pepper is produced in the Malaysian portion of Borneo, and Lampong pepper on Indonesia's island of Sumatra. White Muntok pepper is another Indonesian product, from Bangka Island.[8]
[edit] The pepper plant
Piper nigrum from an 1832 print
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Piper nigrum from an 1832 print
The pepper plant is a perennial woody vine growing to four metres in height on supporting trees, poles, or trellises. It is a spreading vine, rooting readily where trailing stems touch the ground. The leaves are alternate, entire, five to ten centimetres long and three to six centimetres broad. The flowers are small, produced on pendulous spikes four to eight centimetres long at the leaf nodes, the spikes lengthening to seven to 15 centimetres as the fruit matures.
Black pepper is grown in soil that is neither too dry nor susceptible to flooding, is moist, well-drained and rich in organic matter. The plants are propagated by cuttings about 40 to 50 centimetres long, tied up to neighbouring trees or climbing frames at distances of about two metres apart; trees with rough bark are favoured over those with smooth bark, as the pepper plants climb rough bark more readily. Competing plants are cleared away, leaving only sufficient trees to provide shade and permit free ventilation. The roots are covered in leaf mulch and manure, and the shoots are trimmed twice a year. On dry soils the young plants require watering every other day during the dry season for the first three years. The plants bear fruit from the fourth or fifth year, and typically continue to bear fruit for seven years. The cuttings are usually cultivars, selected both for yield and quality of fruit.
A single stem will bear 20 to 30 fruiting spikes. The harvest begins as soon as one or two berries at the base of the spikes begin to turn red, and before the fruit is mature, but when full grown and still hard; if allowed to ripen, the berries lose pungency, and ultimately fall off and are lost. The spikes are collected and spread out to dry in the sun, then the peppercorns are stripped off the spikes.
[edit] History
Pepper has been used as a spice in India since prehistoric times. It was probably first cultivated on the Malabar Coast of India, in what is now the state of Kerala. Peppercorns were a much prized trade good, often referred to as black gold and used as a form of commodity money. The term peppercorn rent still exists today.
The ancient history of black pepper is often interlinked with (and confused with) that of long pepper, the dried fruit of closely related Piper longum. The Romans knew of both and often referred to either as just "piper". In fact, it was not until the discovery of the New World and of chile peppers that the popularity of long pepper entirely declined. Chile peppers, some of which when dried are similar in shape and taste to long pepper, were easier to grow in a variety of locations more convenient to Europe.
Until well after the Middle Ages, virtually all of the black pepper found in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa travelled there from India's Malabar region. By the 16th century, pepper was also being grown in Java, Sunda, Sumatra, Madagascar, Malaysia, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, but these areas traded mainly with China, or used the pepper locally.[9] Ports in the Malabar area also served as a stop-off point for much of the trade in other spices from farther east in the Indian Ocean.
Black pepper, along with other spices from India and lands farther east, changed the course of world history. It was in some part the preciousness of these spices that led to the European efforts to find a sea route to India and consequently to the European colonial occupation of that country, as well as the European discovery and colonization of the Americas.
[edit] Ancient times
Black peppercorns were found lodged in the nostrils of Ramesses II, placed there as part of his mummification rituals shortly after his death in 1213 BCE. Little else is known about the use of pepper in ancient Egypt, nor how it reached the Nile from India.
Pepper (both long and black) was known in Greece at least as early as the 4th century BCE, though it was probably an uncommon and expensive item that only the very rich could afford. Trade routes of the time were by land, or in ships which hugged the coastlines of the Arabian Sea. Long pepper, growing in the north-western part of India, was more accessible than the black pepper from further south; this trade advantage, plus long pepper's greater spiciness, probably made black pepper less popular at the time.
A possible trade route from Italy to south-west India
A possible trade route from Italy to south-west India
By the time of the early Roman Empire, especially after Rome's conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE, open-ocean crossing of the Arabian Sea directly to southern India's Malabar Coast was near routine. Details of this trading across the Indian Ocean have been passed down in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. According to the Roman geographer Strabo, the early Empire sent a fleet of around 120 ships on an annual one-year trip to India and back. The fleet timed its travel across the Arabian Sea to take advantage of the predictable monsoon winds. Returning from India, the ships travelled up the Red Sea, from where the cargo was carried overland or via the Nile Canal to the Nile River, barged to Alexandria, and shipped from there to Italy and Rome. The rough geographical outlines of this same trade route would dominate the pepper trade into Europe for a millennium and a half to come.
With ships sailing directly to the Malabar coast, black pepper was now travelling a shorter trade route than long pepper, and the prices reflected it. Pliny the Elder's Natural History tells us the prices in Rome around 77 CE: "Long pepper ... is fifteen denarii per pound, while that of white pepper is seven, and of black, four." Pliny also complains "there is no year in which India does not drain the Roman Empire of fifty million sesterces," and further moralises on pepper:
It is quite surprising that the use of pepper has come so much into fashion, seeing that in other substances which we use, it is sometimes their sweetness, and sometimes their appearance that has attracted our notice; whereas, pepper has nothing in it that can plead as a recommendation to either fruit or berry, its only desirable quality being a certain pungency; and yet it is for this that we import it all the way from India! Who was the first to make trial of it as an article of food? and who, I wonder, was the man that was not content to prepare himself by hunger only for the satisfying of a greedy appetite?[10]
Black pepper was a well-known and widespread, if expensive, seasoning in the Roman Empire. Apicius' De re coquinaria, a 3rd-century cookbook probably based at least partly on one from the 1st century CE, includes pepper in a majority of its recipes. Edward Gibbon wrote, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, that pepper was "a favourite ingredient of the most expensive Roman cookery".
[edit] Postclassical Europe
Pepper was so valuable that it was often used as collateral or even currency. The taste for pepper (or the appreciation of its monetary value) was passed on to those who would see Rome fall. It is said that both Attila the Hun and Alaric the Visigoth demanded from Rome a ransom of more than a ton of pepper when they besieged the city in 5th century A.D. After the fall of Rome, others took over the middle legs of the spice trade, first Byzantium and then the Arabs. By the end of the Dark Ages, the central portions of the spice trade were firmly under Islamic control. Once into the Mediterranean, the trade was largely monopolised by Italian powers, especially Venice and Genoa. The rise of these city-states was funded in large part by the spice trade.
A riddle authored by Saint Aldhelm, a 7th-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.[11]
It is commonly believed that during the Middle Ages, pepper was used to conceal the taste of partially rotten meat. There is no evidence to support this claim, and historians view it as highly unlikely: in the Middle Ages, pepper was a luxury item, affordable only to the wealthy, who certainly had unspoiled meat available as well.[12] Similarly, the belief that pepper was widely used as a preservative is questionable: it is true that piperine, the compound that gives pepper its spiciness, has some antimicrobial properties, but at the concentrations present when pepper is used as a spice, the effect is small.[13] Salt is a much more effective preservative, and salt-cured meats were common fare, especially in winter. However, pepper and other spices probably did play a role in improving the taste of long-preserved meats.
A depiction of Calicut, India published in 1572 during Portugal's control of the pepper trade
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A depiction of Calicut, India published in 1572 during Portugal's control of the pepper trade
Its exorbitant price during the Middle Ages—and the monopoly on the trade held by Italy—was one of the inducements which led the Portuguese to seek a sea route to India. In 1498, Vasco da Gama became the first European to reach India by sea; asked by Arabs in Calicut (who spoke Spanish and Italian) why they had come, his representative replied, "we seek Christians and spices." Though this first trip to India by way of the southern tip of Africa was only a modest success, the Portuguese quickly returned in greater numbers and used their superior naval firepower to eventually gain complete control of trade on the Arabian sea. This was the start of the first European empire in Asia, given additional legitimacy (at least from a European perspective) by the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, which granted Portugal exclusive rights to the half of the world where black pepper originated.
The Portuguese proved unable to maintain their stranglehold on the spice trade for long. The old Arab and Venetian trade networks successfully smuggled enormous quantities of spices through the patchy Portuguese blockade, and pepper once again flowed through Alexandria and Italy, as well as around Africa. In the 17th century, the Portuguese lost almost all of their valuable Indian Ocean possessions to the Dutch and the English. The pepper ports of Malabar fell to the Dutch in the period 1661–1663.
As pepper supplies into Europe increased, the price of pepper declined (though the total value of the import trade generally did not). Pepper, which in the early Middle Ages had been an item exclusively for the rich, started to become more of an everyday seasoning among those of more average means. Today, pepper accounts for one-fifth of the world's spice trade.[14]
[edit] China
It is possible that black pepper was known in China in the 2nd century BCE, if poetic reports regarding an explorer named Tang Meng (åè) are correct. Sent by Emperor Wu to what is now south-west China, Tang Meng is said to have come across something called jujiang or "sauce-betel". He was told it came from the markets of Shu, an area in what is now the Sichuan province. The traditional view among historians is that "sauce-betel" is a sauce made from betel leaves, but arguments have been made that it actually refers to pepper, either long or black.[15]
In the 3rd century CE, black pepper made its first definite appearance in Chinese texts, as hujiao or "foreign pepper". It does not appear to have been widely known at the time, failing to appear in a 4th-century work describing a wide variety of spices from beyond China's southern border, including long pepper.[16] By the 12th century, however, black pepper had become a popular ingredient in the cuisine of the wealthy and powerful, sometimes taking the place of China's native Sichuan pepper (the tongue-numbing dried fruit of an unrelated plant).
Marco Polo testifies to pepper's popularity in 13th-century China when he relates what he is told of its consumption in the city of Kinsay (Zhejiang): "... Messer Marco heard it stated by one of the Great Kaan's officers of customs that the quantity of pepper introduced daily for consumption into the city of Kinsay amounted to 43 loads, each load being equal to 223 lbs."[17] Marco Polo is not considered a very reliable source regarding China, and this second-hand data may be even more suspect, but if this estimated 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) a day for one city is anywhere near the truth, China's pepper imports may have dwarfed Europe's.
[edit] Pepper as a medicine
'There's certainly too much pepper in that soup!' Alice said to herself, as well as she could for sneezing. — Alice in Wonderland (1865). Chapter VI: Pig and Pepper. Note the cook's pepper mill.
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'There's certainly too much pepper in that soup!' Alice said to herself, as well as she could for sneezing. — Alice in Wonderland (1865). Chapter VI: Pig and Pepper. Note the cook's pepper mill.
Like all eastern spices, pepper was historically both a seasoning and a medicine. Long pepper, being stronger, was often the preferred medication, but both were used.
Black peppercorns figure in remedies in Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani medicine in India. The 5th century Syriac Book of Medicines prescribes pepper (or perhaps long pepper) for such illnesses as constipation, diarrhoea, earache, gangrene, heart disease, hernia, hoarseness, indigestion, insect bites, insomnia, joint pain, liver problems, lung disease, oral abscesses, sunburn, tooth decay, and toothaches.[18] Various sources from the 5th century onward also recommend pepper to treat eye problems, often by applying salves or poultices made with pepper directly to the eye. There is no current medical evidence that any of these treatments has any benefit; pepper applied directly to the eye would be quite uncomfortable and possibly damaging.[19]
Pepper has long been believed to cause sneezing; this is still believed true today. Some sources say that piperine irritates the nostrils, causing the sneezing [20]; some say that it is just the effect of the fine dust in ground pepper, and some say that pepper is not in fact a very effective sneeze-producer at all. Few if any controlled studies have been carried out to answer the question.
Pepper is eliminated from the diet of patients having abdominal surgery and ulcers because of its irritating effect upon the intestines, being replaced by what is referred to as a bland diet.
[edit] Flavour
A handheld pepper mill
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A handheld pepper mill
Pepper gets its spicy heat mostly from the piperine compound, which is found both in the outer fruit and in the seed. Refined piperine, milligram-for-milligram, is about one per cent as hot as the capsaicin in chile peppers. The outer fruit layer, left on black pepper, also contains important odour-contributing terpenes including pinene, sabinene, limonene, caryophyllene, and linalool, which give citrusy, woody, and floral notes. These scents are mostly missing in white pepper, which is stripped of the fruit layer. White pepper can gain some different odours (including musty notes) from its longer fermentation stage.[21]
Pepper loses flavour and aroma through evaporation, so airtight storage helps preserve pepper's original spiciness longer. Pepper can also lose flavour when exposed to light, which can transform piperine into nearly tasteless isochavicine.[22] Once ground, pepper's aromatics can evaporate quickly; most culinary sources recommend grinding whole peppercorns immediately before use for this reason. Handheld pepper mills (or pepper grinders), which mechanically grind or crush whole peppercorns, are used for this, sometimes instead of pepper shakers, dispensers of pre-ground pepper. Spice mills such as pepper mills were found in European kitchens as early as the 14th century, but the mortar and pestle used earlier for crushing pepper remained a popular method for centuries after as well.[23]
[edit] World trade
Peppercorns are, by monetary value, the most widely traded spice in the world, accounting for 20 percent of all spice imports in 2002. The price of pepper can be volatile, and this figure fluctuates a great deal year to year; for example, pepper made up 39 percent of all spice imports in 1998.[24] By weight, slightly more chile peppers are traded worldwide than peppercorns. The International Pepper Exchange is located in Kochi, India.
Vietnam has recently become the world's largest producer and exporter of pepper (85,000 long tons in 2003). Other major producers include Indonesia (67,000 tons), India (65,000 tons), Brazil (35,000 tons), Malaysia (22,000 tons), Sri Lanka (12,750 tons), Thailand, and China. Vietnam dominates the export market, using almost none of its production domestically. In 2003, Vietnam exported 82,000 tons of pepper, Indonesia 57,000 tons, Brazil 37,940 tons, Malaysia 18,500 tons, and India 17,200 tons.[25]