There are so many peppers in Jiangshan - Sichuan pepper, pepper, and chili pepper

People often say that "sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty" are the five flavors of the world. Before chili peppers were introduced to China, the "spicy" that Chinese people could experience was the "three spices" represented by dogwood, ginger and Sichuan pepper.

In ancient times, in addition to seasoning, the more important function of dogwood was to use its own spicy flavor to repel insects and prevent mildew. Therefore, it often appears in ancient poems, such as: Wang Wei, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, said in "Remembering Brothers in Shandong on the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month": "I know my brothers have climbed to a high place, but there is one less person wearing dogwood." Li Qi, a poet of the same era as Wang Wei, also wrote a poem: "Chrysanthemums can ward off bad wine, and soup and noodles are fragrant with dogwood." This means that people not only like to drink chrysanthemum wine on the Double Ninth Festival, but also like to sprinkle dogwood on noodles to increase the spiciness.

Ginger was originally used to ward off evil spirits, but people later discovered its magical uses. In the pre-Qin period, people who liked spicy food would always chew a few bites of ginger while eating.

Sichuan pepper is the first of the "three spices". The Chinese character "椒" originally refers to Sichuan pepper, which is the earliest spicy spice plant in China. Later, pepper and chili were introduced to China and profoundly changed the Chinese table. Today we will talk about these "椒".

Sichuan peppercorn

As a spice, Zanthoxylum bungeanum has been active in Chinese history since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The Book of Songs says: "The fruit of the pepper is abundant and full, and its offspring are huge and unparalleled." The "pepper" here refers to the Sichuan pepper. Sichuan pepper has many seeds, which in ancient times meant many children and good fortune. It was often used as a token of love and gifted to men and women. In the Han Dynasty, the palace where the queen lived was called the Pepper Room. The walls were painted with pepper and mud to make the residence warm and fragrant, and symbolize many children.

According to the different places of origin, Sichuan pepper can be divided into Sichuan pepper and Qin pepper. Today, Sichuan and Shaanxi are still important production and consumption areas of Chinese pepper. Especially in the Bashu region, Sichuan pepper is an indispensable flavor.

However, there are two kinds of Sichuan pepper commonly grown in Sichuan. They are green pepper (Zanthoxylum piasezkii) and Sichuan pepper, both of which belong to the Rutaceae family. Green pepper is also what we often call spicy pepper, also known as Sichuan-Shaanxi pepper. Its fruits are mostly 2 to 3 small follicles that are free on the upper part, while the follicles of Sichuan pepper are mostly solitary, and the fruits are slightly larger. Of course, the most obvious thing is their completely different fruit colors, one red and one green.

Not only do people like to eat Sichuan pepper, but many butterflies also regard it as a delicacy. The larvae of the citrus swallowtail butterfly mainly feed on Sichuan pepper and citrus, so the citrus swallowtail butterfly is also called the "peppercorn swallowtail butterfly."

▲Citrus Swallowtail Larva

However, the native "three spices" were soon impacted by imported spices - pepper and chili came in full force.

black pepper

Pepper (Piper nigrum) is a woody climbing vine of the Piperaceae family, Piperales. It is native to Southeast Asia and South Asia (Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, etc.). It was introduced to China during the Han Dynasty and immediately became a noble spice. At that time, transportation was inconvenient and sea transportation was not popular. After Arab merchants imported pepper from India, it had to go through a long and arduous transportation to reach China and Europe. In addition, the trade monopoly made it extremely expensive.

The British BBC once made a documentary called "The Spice Road". In the film, the host held a handful of pepper and said, "In the Middle Ages, stealing a handful of pepper was equivalent to successfully robbing a bank today." This is because in medieval Europe, pepper was regarded as "black gold" and could even be used directly as currency.

In medieval Europe, due to the lack of modern refrigeration technology, it was difficult to keep meat fresh for a long time. People often used pickling to preserve meat. However, this kind of pickled meat often had a strong odor, which made it difficult for people to enjoy the delicious taste. People were very troubled by this problem. The use of pepper not only had an appetizing effect but also effectively covered up the smell, making the food delicious, and soon became a favorite.

However, in my country of foodies, there is also the native Sichuan peppercorn as a substitute, so it is more of an exotic and status symbol. However, even so, pepper is still expensive in China due to trade monopoly and high transportation costs. However, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, China successfully introduced pepper and broke the monopoly. Since then, the value of pepper has gradually decreased and eventually became a common thing.

The flavor and nutrients in pepper are easy to evaporate and oxidize, so the best way to eat it is to grind it and eat it immediately. In fact, whether it is the common black pepper, white pepper, or the less common green pepper and red pepper on the market, they are actually the same plant, just processed in different ways. Unripe pepper fruits retain the peel and are directly dried to become black pepper, while white pepper is made by selecting ripe pepper fruits, peeling and drying them. Red pepper is obtained by pickling ripe pepper fruits with salt and vinegar. Green pepper can be made from unripe pepper in the same way.

▲ Various colors of pepper

chili

Finally, let's talk about peppers, which have changed Chinese cuisine. It is the latest spice introduced to China, but the most widely used one. Peppers (Capsicum annuum) are from the genus Capsicum, Solanaceae, Magnoliaceae, native to Colombia and Mexico in Central America. They were introduced to China during the Ming Dynasty more than 400 years ago. The Ming Dynasty's "Caohua Pu" recorded "sweet peppers", which were first cultivated as ornamental plants.

Chinese people began to eat chili peppers during the reign of Emperor Qianlong and flourished during the reign of Emperor Daoguang. During the reign of Emperor Jiaqing, chili peppers were already widely grown for consumption in provinces such as Sichuan, Guizhou, Hunan, and Jiangxi. Interestingly, chili peppers were first introduced from Guangdong, Guangxi, and Zhejiang, but these provinces are not the major spicy food consumption provinces in China today.

The spiciness of peppers is not actually a taste, but a pain caused by capsaicin, a vanilloid alkaloid that can bind to the vanilloid receptor subtype 1 of sensory neurons, producing a burning pain. This burning pain can cause the brain to have the illusion of physical injury and begin to release the body's own painkillers - endorphins, so it can make people feel euphoric, and the more they eat, the better they feel, and the more they want to eat.

In recent years, Chinese people's love for spicy food has become increasingly higher, and spicy food has become an indispensable part of people's diet. Since then, all traditional Chinese spicy condiments have fallen from the altar.