|
Hot and Sweet Peppers from East and West
 BECOME A KITCHEN BOTANIST: Hot and Sweet Peppers from East and West
A recent news flash stated that a just-discovered variety of chili pepper native to India was determined to be the hottest on record.
Hot it was, but hot and sweet peppers are native to Central and South America and not to Asia. The Portuguese carried them to South Asia in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. They had a quick and momentous impact on Asian rice-based diets, because these fruits contain the alkaloid capsaicin, which provides the "hotness" to the tongue. Most of the "heat" is in the seeds. Think of the hot pepper seeds you sprinkle on Pizza.
These fruits come in a multitude of shapes, sizes, and colors. Whether they are called chili, chilli, chile, capsicum, or paprika, they are all derived from the same species, Capsicum frutescens. “Capsicum” comes from the Latin word “capsa,” which means box, even though that designation doesn’t fit many hot peppers, which are often long and cylindrical.
Chilies in all their variety are native to tropical America, while black pepper, which is ubiquitous on American tables, is the ground up dried fruits of plants in the genus Piper. These plants are native to India and the word “pepper” is derived by a long and circuitous route from a Sanskrit word.
Why is the name of an old world plant, “pepper,” applied to fruits of new world plants? The plants are used in both parts of the world to improve the taste of food, and similar use often trumps scientific terminology.
|
