[Sca-cooks] long pepper?

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Kathleen A. Roberts:
>so.... having just won the al-barran midwinter bid (feed 300)...
>and living in the heart of chili-head-ania.....
>
>tell me more or where i can find more about long pepper?  and does 
>it fit into 12th/13th cent euro food?   (christ-mass in the time of 
>the troubadours)
>
>if i can give the chili heads a fix, so to speak, mebbe more will 
>enjoy their medieval chow! 8)

The first thing you need to know is that long pepper is more closely 
related to black pepper than to chiles. Think of inch-long 
(approximately) black pinecones or evergreen tips, tasting somewhat 
like black pepper, but somehow a little sharper and lighter in 
flavor. GREAT with fish dishes, and excellent in medieval pepper 
sauces. My fave is the Anglo-Norman MS one with grape pulp and 
ginger...

It's perfectly possible to make a hot-tasting dish with this stuff, 
but chile it is not, the opinions of some writers published in the 
Larousse Gastronomique, Madeleine Kamman, and others notwithstanding.

Adamantius