Spice comes from any part of the plant such as stem, root, petal, seed, fruit or whole of it. In the pepper family, the black pepper and other 3 key members, including white pepper, red pepper and green pepper, come from the berries on a pepper vine. Pepper plants are edible. The leave is sweet but the pepper fruits has another type of flavour. Generally, we may see 4 types of peppers in the market. Different pepper species depend on the ripeness of the pepper berry. The spiciness of pepper comes from “piperine”, which is a substance that make us taste hot and spicy.
Pepper is like salt, which can enrich the flavour of the dishes. Each ingredient has its unique characteristics. You can mix and match of varied ingredients to form a combination of some ingredients for the deliciousness of your cuisine.
When should we add pepper for the great aroma and flavour during cooking? Let’s take a look of its nature.
- Pepper is scorching easily if it is fried or heated immensely
- Pepper aroma is not easily infused into food inside. It is likely that taste stays on the food surface
- Pepper tastes bitter and pungent if it is boiled.
- Pepper can’t be cooked for a long while
The peppery flavour comes mainly from the centre of peppercorns. Therefore, grinding the peppercorns is much better than the pepper powder, because grinding can bring the great flavour and aroma of the pepper.
I love to do experiment. Personally, I like to grind the peppercorn to the dishes when it is nearly to serve.
Note: Image by Karolina Grabowska
