Fw: Fw: [Sca-cooks] Hot Peppers

[Phlip]

As promised, here is Gene Anderson's take on hot, non-capsicum, flavors.


Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> 1)  Several kinds of black pepper.  In addition to the one we still know,
> the cubeb pepper (Piper cubeba), long pepper (Piper longum), and one or
two
> others were used.  When chiles came, they were abandoned; in some cases
the
> name was re-applied to the chile (Malay "lada" now meaning chile was once
> the long pepper, I believe).
> 2)  Smartweed (Polygonum hydropiper and similar Polyganum spp).  This was
> the hot herb in China and neighboring areas.  It survives in Vietnamese
> cuisine under the name rau ram.
> 3)  The Szechuan, brown, or flower "pepper"  (Zanthoxylum spp.), still
> widely used in China and neighboring northern Southeast Asia.  It has a
> stinging but then slightly numbing quality.
> 4)  More of a reach--not so "hot" but still a bit tingly, and tending to
be
> abandoned when chiles came in:  Sagebrush, a.k.a. mugwort or
> wormwood.  Still used a bit in Korea for seasoning.  Only some kinds are
> used, and sparingly, because all are slightly poisonous, some more than
others.
> 5)  Even more of a reach, but at least quite spicy, are the many species
of
> cardamom: the familiar one (Eletteria sp) and the many Amomum spp called
> "large cardamom" and such in the literature. They are so different from
> chile that they are still used, but not as much as once, because chile has
> somewhat displaced them in some cuisines at least.
> For authenticity--if you want to cook east Asian pre-chile dishes--throw
in
> a bit more black or white pepper, large cardamoms, etc than the recipe
> calls for, and some rau ram.
> That'll do it--
> best--Gene Anderson

Phlip

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....