Steenbergs Long Pepper is currently Piper retrofactum from Indonesia. Indian long pepper is Piper longum. Long pepper is usually used whole and it has a sweet aroma with a taste that starts out similar to black peppercorns but then a...
Read full product details and description
Steenbergs Long Pepper is currently Piper retrofactum from Indonesia. Indian long pepper is Piper longum. Long pepper is usually used whole and it has a sweet aroma with a taste that starts out similar to black peppercorns but then a biting heat comes through afterwards. Long pepper is used mainly in slow cooked African and Asian dishes, as well as in chutneys.
Long pepper grows on slender vines that have sparser foliage than the more familiar black pepper vines, with shiny green oval leaves. Long pepper is harvested before ripe when green and then sun dried in a very similar way to Piper nigrum is oxidised in the sun from green through to black coloured peppercorns. Both types of long pepper are shaped like mini catkins 5mm in diameter (0.25 inch) and 3cm (1 inch) in length with a similar colour to black peppercorns, i.e. dark brown to black. The surface of long pepper is rough like a catkin, comprising a cartwheel of eight minute, dark-red seeds. Long pepper has a strange sweet and fragrant aroma that seems like exotic incense, giving it a certain sensuousness, but the flavour is bitingly hot, lingering and number. Indonesian black pepper is slightly longer and more pungent that the Indian variety. For more on long pepper, take a look at Wikipedia.
Use them in pickles instead of black pepper to give more bite or in North African or Ethiopian dishes. Try it in a chutney in place of black pepper or, because of its sweet notes, it also works well with fruit, think strawberries and pepper.
Steenbergs long pepper is part of Steenbergs range of specialist vine pepper and other specialist ingredients, such as cubeb pepper and grains of paradise. Steenbergs has an extensive range of normal and more specialised dry ingredients, including over 400 organic herbs, organic spices, organic seasonings, organic flavours and extracts and teas. For more information, browse the web site or call us on 01765 640 088.
