Pepper: The Rise And Fall Of Black Gold

The booming spice trade meant that there were a lot of traders trading a lot of spices. And medieval recipes held the art of spicing dishes in high regard. Historian WE Mead describes how “cooks…prided themselves upon the number of incongruous elements they could combine in one dish without making it uneatable…they catered for men and women…whose palates were dulled by sharp sauces, by spiced wines and by pepper, mustard and ginger and cubebs and cardamom and cinnamon.”

Toward the end of the 15^th century, Venice was importing 1,000 tons of peppercorns per year – making its fortune from the monopoly it had on trade with the Middle East. This inspired the Portuguese explorer, Vasco de Gama, to set off in search of new trade routes. And in 1498 he struck gold when he landed on India’s Malabar coast. Soon ships laden with peppercorns were doing a roaring trade in Indian peppercorns – known as “black gold”. But with such high prices, the prized Indian peppers didn’t displace Europe’s diverse array of spices and seasonings which had been traded for centuries . And for many years, chefs were able to pick and choose from the most enormous array of spices which were being traded throughout Europe.

Matching salt ‘n pepper shakers on a refectory dining table, dispensing tasteless flecks. And grains of rice to stop the dried pepper from clumping

Leap forward to the twentieth century, and the national obsession with pepper had dwindled to stale pots of pre-ground pepper. Matching salt ‘n pepper shakers on a refectory dining table, dispensing tasteless flecks. And grains of rice to stop the dried pepper from clumping – to keep it ‘fresh’ for as long as possible. Months…years perhaps. 

Around the time that fondues became fashionable though, people rediscovered the beauty of freshly ground pepper. And soon everybody had a wooden grinder on their wedding list. Italian restaurants allocated waiters to be Chief Grinder, arming them with increasingly large weapons to dash from table to table, seasoning dishes in front of the diners’ very eyes.

And then – as is the way with food trends – freshly ground black pepper suddenly fell out of fashion again. Mocked as a retro. And so a pepper backlash began. “Pepper…is a fickle spice – it can be used well, but add too much, and your food tastes cheap and crass” wrote food writer and anti-pepper ringleader, Sara Dickerman, in 2012. As momentum gathered, others joined in: “it makes food taste the same”, “why’s it used on everything?”, “it’s lazy!” critics cried.

Pepper…is a fickle spice – it can be used well, but add too much, and your food tastes cheap and crass

Quite right. We’ve got a lot to learn from our discerning forefathers, who were familiar with a far wider range of peppers that we are. Freshly-ground, strong black pepper doesn’t enhance every dish. And quite often more subtle flavours work far better – the light, coconut flavours of Grains of Paradise are a far better match with fish than a heavier, spicy Telicherry pepper.

Pepper is now grown all around the world. And its taste depends on a lot of things. A wine merchant recognises that a Chardonnay from Burgundy is very different from a Chardonnay grown in a warmer climate like Australia. But peppers’ ‘terroir’ is rarely recognised by cooks – many of whom freely use pepper as the all-important finishing flavour in a dish.

So we decided to investigate here at Sous Chef, and have pulled together a guide to help.

Have you cooked with any "Medieval Peppers" like long, cubeb or grains of paradise? How did you use them? And how did the tastes differ from the common black peppercorn?