a spice which was much more widely used in classical and medieval times than now, comes from two species of plant in the pepper family. Piper longum, Indian long pepper, grows wild at the foot of the Himalayas and in S. India. P. retrofractum, Javanese long pepper, is found throughout Malaysia. The latter is the more pungent and generally held to be the better. It is certainly the longer; its fruit, a dark catkin-like spike made up of tiny seeds, may measure 6 cm (2.5″) long.
When Theophrastus wrote about pepper in the 3rd century bc, he listed only two kinds, black pepper (P. nigrum) and long pepper: ‘One is round [he describes the reddish fruit of P. nigrum] … The other is long, black, with poppy-like seeds. This is much stronger.’ Nearly 400 years later, Pliny described three sorts of pepper: black, white, and long. The last cost twice as much as white, which in turn cost much more than black.
Long pepper was still prominent in European recipes of the 16th century, and Bailey (1588) noted that ‘long pepper is to be seen in every shop’. But the price differential was reversed. In 1607 black pepper cost 12 times as much as long pepper in France. This change may have indicated a decreasing demand, for it was about then that long pepper started to disappear from European recipes. By 1702 a French writer could write: ‘I have nothing to say about long pepper since it is no longer used as food.’
Use of long pepper in India and other Asian countries has been more consistent. It even pre-dated the use of black pepper, and continues on a substantial scale, although much long pepper has to be imported. Linguistic evidence suggests that long pepper was also the first to be used in Europe. Its name in Sanskrit was pippali (corresponding to the Hindi pipli), and it is from this word that the classical names (Greek peperi and Latin piper) and modern terms for pepper have come.
P. and M. Hyman (1980) speculate that the decline of long pepper in Europe may have been caused by the introduction in the 16th century of chilli pepper. Gerard (1633) said of long pepper: ‘It is in taste sharper and hotter than black pepper, yet sweeter and of a better taste.’ If it had been prized for its hot quality, then it would have been natural for chilli to oust it, especially as the chilli was cheaper and, unlike long pepper, could be grown in the hotter European countries. Moreover, the chilli kept better. Long pepper, according to Bailey (1588), was ‘moister than any other kind and it will sooner mold and waxe mustie than any other’.
If the above is correct, it would remain to explain the continued use of long pepper in Asia. The answer may be that Asian cuisines, unlike European ones, have room for three hot peppers; and that long pepper was a local product for Asians and less apt to spoil. In India there is some cultivation of long pepper, but most is gathered wild in the north. It is used generally as a spice, and also in pickles and preserves.
The hotness of long pepper is partly due to the presence of piperine, as in black pepper, but also to other alkaloids with numbing properties.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Bailey, Walter (1588), A Short Discourse of the Three Kindes of Pepper in Common Use, London.
Gerard, John (1633), The Herbal, New York: Dover.
