Salt and pepper were very expensive in the seventeenth century and in short supply. Dishes were often seasoned instead with mustard, cloves and mace and garnished with lemons and capers.
Salt was needed for the preservation of fish and meat.
Fresh fish could not be transported any distance from the port of landing unless they were preserved. Two of these products were Red Herring and Salt Cod. Red Herring was made with heavily salted herring that was smoked for up to three weeks in a kiln
Venice treacle, given by Thomas Sydenham to Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester in 1686, contained more than 70 ingredients including: wormwood, orange peel, angelica, nutmeg, horseradish, scurvy grass, white horehound, centaury, camomile, and juniper berries. All infused in 5 pints of sack! And what was this medicine for? A headache. Mind you, she did have good reason for a headache that year.
Long pepper is first recorded in the Mediterranean around the 6th century B.C.E. It was spicy in a way no other plant available to Europeans was at the time
Long pepper is rare today. Why did black pepper go mainstream, while long pepper, which is spicier and more complex, disappear? It’s a story of geography, supply and demand, and quantity beating quality
The Piper longum vine is native to north India. The long pepper travelled to the Mediterranean via overland spice routes, reaching Greece when Socrates taught and Athens was in its golden age.
It is a flower spike -- long, bumpy, and phallic. It has the same active compound as black pepper, an alkaloid named piperine, which activates the human body’s heat-sensing pathways
Mediterranean people had spicy food — mustard and horseradish are native — but they never would have tasted anything that attacked the mouth the way long pepper does
By the turn of the millennium, long pepper was a beloved spice.
Black pepper first reached Europe after the Romans had learned to navigate the monsoons to trade regularly with Kerala, southern India. With sea trade routes controlled by Rome, the supply of black pepper increased.
By the 4th century A.D., both long pepper and black pepper were being sold as fancy spices, but black pepper cost a third as much. Roman recipes rarely distinguished between the two. Was long pepper more expensive because it was scarcer, or was it tastier?
When tried side by side, black pepper is the more aggressive, announcing itself loudly before fading into a sharp tingle. Long pepper stages a quieter takeover, but once it arrives, it grows in power. It has a pleasantness that makes it tolerable for longer; black pepper’s assertive bite almost becomes tiresome. Long pepper also has an acrid mellowness to it — its spice hits, but with a floral note, rather than black pepper’s bitterness.
The two tastes are similar enough that it's hard to imagine anyone noticing their pasta is spiced with black pepper rather than long.
Both peppers survived the Middle Ages as luxury items, but Portuguese spice traders pioneered new routes to bring black pepper to Europe.
Long pepper was still available in Europe until the end of the 17th century.
By the 1700s, long pepper had fallen out of use. Sea trade routes had outcompeted overland routes, and since black pepper traveled by water, it won market dominance.
Today, long pepper’s still used in cooking from the places where it grows: it’s a basic ingredient in Indian and southeast Asian dishes. (Indonesia is a big supplier.) But for European and American cooks, there’s only one piperine plant that matters: Piper nigrum.
5 Annotations
First Reading
hazel-mary • Link
Salt and pepper were very expensive in the seventeenth century and in short supply. Dishes were often seasoned instead with mustard, cloves and mace and garnished with lemons and capers.
michael f vincent • Link
Salt was needed for the preservation of fish and meat.
Fresh fish could not be transported any distance from the port of landing unless they were preserved. Two of these products were Red Herring and Salt Cod. Red Herring was made with heavily salted herring that was smoked for up to three weeks in a kiln
http://www.3men.com/history.htm
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Venice treacle, given by Thomas Sydenham to Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester in 1686, contained more than 70 ingredients including: wormwood, orange peel, angelica, nutmeg, horseradish, scurvy grass, white horehound, centaury, camomile, and juniper berries. All infused in 5 pints of sack!
And what was this medicine for? A headache. Mind you, she did have good reason for a headache that year.
Bill • Link
There is also an encyclopedia entry for Venice treacle: http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Long pepper is first recorded in the Mediterranean around the 6th century B.C.E. It was spicy in a way no other plant available to Europeans was at the time
Long pepper is rare today. Why did black pepper go mainstream, while long pepper, which is spicier and more complex, disappear? It’s a story of geography, supply and demand, and quantity beating quality
The Piper longum vine is native to north India. The long pepper travelled to the Mediterranean via overland spice routes, reaching Greece when Socrates taught and Athens was in its golden age.
It is a flower spike -- long, bumpy, and phallic. It has the same active compound as black pepper, an alkaloid named piperine, which activates the human body’s heat-sensing pathways
Mediterranean people had spicy food — mustard and horseradish are native — but they never would have tasted anything that attacked the mouth the way long pepper does
By the turn of the millennium, long pepper was a beloved spice.
Black pepper first reached Europe after the Romans had learned to navigate the monsoons to trade regularly with Kerala, southern India. With sea trade routes controlled by Rome, the supply of black pepper increased.
By the 4th century A.D., both long pepper and black pepper were being sold as fancy spices, but black pepper cost a third as much. Roman recipes rarely distinguished between the two. Was long pepper more expensive because it was scarcer, or was it tastier?
When tried side by side, black pepper is the more aggressive, announcing itself loudly before fading into a sharp tingle.
Long pepper stages a quieter takeover, but once it arrives, it grows in power. It has a pleasantness that makes it tolerable for longer; black pepper’s assertive bite almost becomes tiresome.
Long pepper also has an acrid mellowness to it — its spice hits, but with a floral note, rather than black pepper’s bitterness.
The two tastes are similar enough that it's hard to imagine anyone noticing their pasta is spiced with black pepper rather than long.
Both peppers survived the Middle Ages as luxury items, but Portuguese spice traders pioneered new routes to bring black pepper to Europe.
Long pepper was still available in Europe until the end of the 17th century.
By the 1700s, long pepper had fallen out of use. Sea trade routes had outcompeted overland routes, and since black pepper traveled by water, it won market dominance.
Today, long pepper’s still used in cooking from the places where it grows: it’s a basic ingredient in Indian and southeast Asian dishes. (Indonesia is a big supplier.)
But for European and American cooks, there’s only one piperine plant that matters: Piper nigrum.
Highlights from https://www.atlasobscura.com/arti…