Black Pepper

You can’t have a spice book without talking about black pepper. We all know it, we all use it and this has been the case for a very long time. The spicy pungency of pepper is exactly why people have loved it for so long; in the past it flavoured bland food with its wonderful kick. Salted meat was made palatable with pepper, hence the modern-day pairing of salt and pepper as a seasoning.

Pepper is native to the Malabar Coast of India, where it has been exported for thousands of years. The Indians, who never miss a food trick, have loved this precious spice since 2000BC. The ancient Greeks and Romans began to import the spice from India to add a kick to their food, and after the decline of the Roman Empire, the Persians and Arabs traded the valuable spice with Europe. It was an instant success, and its importance played a great part in shaping the modern world today. The European ports of Venice and Genoa boomed and, in a quest to source new trade routes for this valuable commodity, Columbus discovered a little place called America!