[Sca-cooks] pink peppercorn

[Daniel Myers]

On Wednesday, September 10, 2003, at 02:40 PM,  
<jenne at fiedlerfamily.net> wrote:

> In _Dangerous Tastes: The story of spices_, Andrew Dalby says that a  
> South
> American native plant related to capsicums is the source of the pink
> peppercorn/baies roses: "It has a cloase relative, Schinus
> terebinthifolius, native to Brazil, whose berries are currently  
> enjoying a
> vogue as a culinary spice under such names as pink peppercorns, baies
> roses or Brazilian pepper. They have been much used by chefs who aim at
> nouvelle cuisine, though some diners suffer adverse reactions to them."
>
> I know that some peppercorn blends come with pink peppercorns in them.
> This Dalby's statement suggests to me that avoiding such blends isn't  
> just
> a good way of keeping our cooking period, but of avoiding introducing a
> specific kind of allergy issue-- since there are people who are  
> allergic
> to capsicums but not to Piper species, and so might be fooled by  
> hearing
> that spice pepper was used into tasting something that would provoke  
> their
> allergies.

Capsicum peppers are from the family Solanaceae (nightshade family),  
whereas "pink peppercorns" (Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi) are from  
Anacardiaceae (cashew family).  While it's possible that there might be  
some allergens in common, I don't think it likely.

On the other hand (and the concept of cooking within period aside), I  
think it would be a bad idea to use pink pepper in any dish unless you  
tell those being served.  It is a completely different plant than  
regular pepper (Piper nigrum) and is a potential source of allergy  
trouble.

There's some good information on pink peppercorns at the site below,  
including a little bit on some of the reported health problems.

	http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/engl/ 
generic_frame.html?Schi_ter.html

- Doc


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  Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers)
  http://www.medievalcookery.com/
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