[Sca-cooks] Real Cubebs?
lilinah at earthlink.net
lilinah at earthlink.net
Fri Jun 11 17:12:22 PDT 2010
I'm prepping to teach a hands on Ottoman cooking class tomorrow at
our Kingdom A&S event, a weekend campout. So i'm trying not to do
email until i get back, but, well...
Mora Blackmarsh wrote:
>Notes from Dragonmarsh RE: Cubebs and other Peppers
>
>A few years ago there was a canker fungus on the Szechuan Peppers that
>threatened the citrus industry.
SNIP
>The description of the "other"
>peppers sounds like Szechuan Peppers .
I am very familiar with Szechuan peppers and what i have isn't that.
They are quite distinctively different, not only in flavor, but in
appearance and feel.
>Cubeb Berry (Piper cubeba) are a complete separate pepper and should not
>be confused with Guinea Pepper -Grains of Paradise (Amomum melegeuta).
>They do have different tastes.
I am pretty certain that what Lhasa Karnak is selling (and what i
have gotten from them the past 2 or 3 years) is Piper guineense (aka
Ashanti or West African Pepper, in the pepper family (Piperaceae)),
occasionally called Guinea pepper, although some spices use that
name, including:
Aframomum/Amomum melegueta (Grains of Paradise) in the ginger family
(Zingiberaceae); and Xylopia aethiopica (Grains of Selim) in the
custard apple family (Annonaceae). While all are piquant/spicy, they
really do taste different from each other.
However, while everything i read says Ashanti pepper tastes like
cubeb only less bitter, what i have bought really lacks flavor.
Some folks on my local cooks list have made some suggestions in my
area where maybe i will find real cubebs. I will check them out next
week.
Gotta run! Still have to buy chicken and chard.
--
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita
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