Long Pepper

Long pepper (dar fulful/filfil daraz) is rarely, if ever, used nowadays but in ancient and medieval times it was a well-known spice, often confused with its relative black pepper. It is the fruit of a mostly wild tropical vine, and consists of dense 1in/2.5cm catkin-like spikes, composed of a large number of tiny fruits with tiny seeds all adhering to the elongated axis.

Daisy Iny (The Best of Baghdad Cooking with Treats from Teheran) provides the modern Arabic name for this forgotten spice, filfil daraz. Dar fulful was its medieval name.