Peppercorns

The word “peppercorn” is used in reference to several types of plants. The true peppercorn, Piper nigrum, yields what we know as green, white, and black peppercorns. Brown Szechwan peppercorns come from another plant altogether. Up until the 1500s, peppercorns were the primary “heat” in the spicy foods of Thailand. The fiery hot chilies prevalent there now were a New World discovery and came with sixteenth-century European explorers. Thai: prik thai; Malay: lada; Vietnamese: tiêu hột