Long peppercorns are brownish-blacks spikes made up
numerous little seeds produced by the Piper longum plant, a close
relative of black pepper. So not surprisingly it is native to the same
region as regular peppercorns, Southern India, but is also now
cultivated in other tropical regions around the world. Long pepper
contains the same main active ingredient, Piperine, as common peppercorns, but
in a slightly higher concentration.
Long pepper was once the common type of pepper found in
Europe before the introduction of the spice we now know as peppercorns.
The long peppercorns fell out of favor and were replaced with the cleaner
tasting round peppercorns and the pungent chile peppers brought back from
the new world by Christopher Columbus. Long pepper remained an obscure
spice of the past for hundreds of years until recently when it started to
reemerge as a exotic spice with the subtle differences in its flavor being
appreciated in their own right.
Pepper mentioned in antiquity almost certainly was
referring to long pepper and not the round peppercorns we commonly know
today.
Today Long pepper is most commonly found in cuisines of
its native India, North Africa, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Long peppers is also know as Thippili,
Pippali, Pipal,
or Javanese pepper in different
parts of the world.
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