[Sca-cooks] Real Cubebs?

[Terry Decker]

Possibly Piper guineense, West African Pepper or Guinea Pepper AKA False 
Cubeb.  To quote Wikipedia, "prolate-elliptically shaped, smaller and 
smoother than Cubeb pepper in appearance and generally bear a reddish 
tinge."  The taste is milder and less bitter than cubeb and it is commonly 
used as a substitute for cubeb.

Bear

> I buy a lot of spices at Lhasa Karnak, in Berkeley, which is generally 
> reliable. But a few years ago there was a problem with cubebs (i forget 
> which, a disease or insect infestation). Since then LK has been selling as 
> cubebs something that definitely is not cubeb. They are tinier than 
> cubebs, have no tail, and pretty much no flavor. The wrinkled black skin 
> slips off easily revealing a red-brown smoothing skinned sphere.
>
,
> -- 
> Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]