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Long Pepper


rebgold

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My spice encyclopaedia suggests looking to Indonesia for recipes. There are a few decent Indonesian books around, I think. Heard many good things about Sri Owen's book. Seen it avaliable cheap, too.

Chris Taylor

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I've never met an animal I didn't enjoy with salt and pepper.

Melbourne
Harare, Victoria Falls and some places in between

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I like to use long pepper in sweets, because it adds a fruitiness that is distinct from and in addition to the standard black pepper, although I think you could get a similar effect in a lot of cases with regular peppercorns plus cardamom:

Ginger icebox cookies with long pepper

Spice cookies with rice flour and coconut

Chocolate Ginger Pear Bread

I've also used it in some soups and sauces, curries. Haven't got any particular recipes to link to, however.

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There is a very nice recipe on this page.

I agree that long pepper is good with sweets and it is also very nice with fruit and is heavenly on melons.

I tried some sprinkled over the apples for an apple tart and liked the result.

On another thread I posted that a good way to cut long pepper so it will fit into a mill is to use a pet toenail clipper - I have one just for this purpose (and for clipping long vitamin tablets into halves).

I have found recipes in my Roman cookbooks that specify long pepper as I believe it was more popular in Roman times and through the middle ages.

A mulled wine recipe is here.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I find using a Mortar and Pestle works well, to help brake it down.

That works for me for coarse crushing but I prefer a fine, even distribution and I have the battery powered Graviti mills, so that's what I use.

I also like the idea of a blend of peppers (with or without other spices) but I simply blend my own as I rarely buy pre-ground pepper of any kind.

I have found that most pepper loses the more complex and fruity components within a couple of days of grinding. However, I have to admit that I am rather "picky" about such things and I also know that not everyone can taste the difference. It is entirely personal preference and if one gets a good result with a spice mixture, by all means use it.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I mentioned how I use long pepper in a mill, here's a photo of the pet nail clipper and some cut long pepper so you can see how it works.

long pepper clip.JPG

It's a very simple solution.

I buy my long pepper from Salt Traders but have also purchased from L'Epicerie.

They carry a significant number of unusual and difficult to find items.

Their service is excellent.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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this thread reminded me of my long pepper, used some on blueberries with local honey last night, was quite delicious! It's really a nice pepper with very distinct flavor. Worth having and worth remembering having :laugh:

edited to add: a pet nail clipper is quite possibly the oddest utensil I've seen in kitchen use! I'd probably use my pliers (for kitchen use only). But in the grinder I have it's just the long pepper pieces. Came with the grinder, which seems to be the same as any other spice with grinder contraption, but might not be. I don't know if long pepper would go through my regular grinder.

Edited by OliverB (log)

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this thread reminded me of my long pepper, used some on blueberries with local honey last night, was quite delicious! It's really a nice pepper with very distinct flavor. Worth having and worth remembering having :laugh:

edited to add: a pet nail clipper is quite possibly the oddest utensil I've seen in kitchen use! I'd probably use my pliers (for kitchen use only). But in the grinder I have it's just the long pepper pieces. Came with the grinder, which seems to be the same as any other spice with grinder contraption, but might not be. I don't know if long pepper would go through my regular grinder.

I have several of the "Graviti" battery mills made by Trudeau. Long Pepper does not work well in these because of the shape. I have no problems if I cut it into bits that are approximately the size of fairly large peppercorns - about the size of allspice.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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