| These days certain spices have become so | | | | ginger (and its relatives, galangal, zedoary etc) are |
| ubiquitous at our tables that we hardly think of | | | | spices, as is the Medieval spice, Galingale (the root |
| them as spices at all... Black pepper is the obvious | | | | of a sedge, a grass-like plant). |
| example here, but I'd include chillies in the form of | | | | Humans are odd amongst animals in that we like |
| sauces and pastes as well. Just think of the salt | | | | pungency in our foods and many, many spices |
| and pepper cellars on just about each and every | | | | we do or have employed tend to have this note |
| table and the chilli-based condiments that are | | | | in their flavour. This, in turn, has led us as a |
| everywhere. Also, look at any recipe on the web | | | | species to use a whole range of spices in our |
| and if they're for a savoury dish I guarantee you | | | | cookery and many of these spices, in some way, |
| that well over 90% will have 'season with salt and | | | | echo the distinctive nature of black pepper. |
| pepper' somewhere in the cooking instructions. | | | | This is why the chilli, when introduced to Europe |
| Today black pepper is both cheap and plentiful | | | | from the Americas was called the 'chilli pepper' (to |
| and it's hard for us to even consider a time when | | | | associate it with black pepper). Indeed, the vast |
| pepper was an incredibly rare and expensive | | | | majority of spices impart 'heat' on a dish and only |
| commodity. However, until very recently (and | | | | very few are purely used for their flavouring |
| even during the Second World War in Europe) | | | | properties. Chilli is widely used because it imparts |
| black pepper was both expensive and rare. It was | | | | pure 'heat' to a dish but it does not have the |
| only produced in India and found its way to | | | | pungency of black pepper and this is why chilli, |
| Europe by strange and mysterious means. | | | | though very widely used today, still hasn't |
| The first recorded use of black pepper in Europe | | | | displaced black pepper as the King of Spices. |
| and North Africa was in the tomb of the pharaoh | | | | Most of our common and not so common spices |
| Rameses II who had two peppercorns stuck in | | | | have a heat and pungency that mimics black |
| this nostrils when he was mummified (and that | | | | pepper in some way or other. But all of them also |
| was 4000 years ago). But the first Western | | | | impart a bitterness to the foods they flavour. |
| peoples to use black pepper extensively were the | | | | Good examples are cubeb pepper (common in |
| Greeks and they introduced the love of this spice | | | | the Middle Ages) and Sénégal |
| to the Romans. As a result the Romans were the | | | | Pepper (which was used as a black pepper |
| first Europeans to travel to India in search of this | | | | substitute during the Second World War). They |
| magical substance (of course, Indian traders had | | | | impart both heat and pungency to dishes, but if |
| been going the other way for centuries!). | | | | used to excess they also impart an unpleasant |
| In many ways black pepper is the perfect spice in | | | | bitterness and this is why they never truly rivalled |
| that it has the 'heat' and 'pungency' that lift the | | | | black pepper as food flavourings. |
| flavours of a dish but brings with it no hint of | | | | In our craving for adding that extra 'pep' to our |
| bitterness. It therefore gives any and all foods an | | | | foods humans have scoured all corners of the |
| 'oomph' in terms of flavour without making them | | | | world and we have tasted and added some very |
| unpalatable (this is why Romans even put pepper | | | | strange things to our dishes (Sichuan pepper, |
| in their desserts!). | | | | beloved of Chinese cookery is a relative of the |
| But what actually is a spice? In terms of a | | | | orange!). But nothing has rivalled the pre-eminence |
| modern definition, a spice is typically obtained | | | | of black pepper in cookery. The only spice to |
| from the dried fruiting body of a plant. Thus it can | | | | come close is chilli. |
| be the whole fruit (as in cubeb pepper or allspice | | | | This does mean that our love of black pepper has |
| berries or cumin) or it is the kernel or seed of the | | | | displaced many local spices that we used to use in |
| fruit (as in nutmeg and fenugreek seeds or nigella | | | | the past and it also means that we are ignoring |
| seeds). In contrast, herbs are the vegetative | | | | many taste sensations that could usefully be put |
| parts of a plant (the stems and leaves) and | | | | back in our cookery. Maybe it's time to |
| include lemongrass (stems), thyme (leaves), | | | | re-discover some of these lost spices from all |
| oregano (leaves). Spices are also obtained from | | | | over the globe an to re-gain some of our lost |
| the roots, rhizomes or tubers of plants. Thus | | | | culinary heritage. |