I used to dislike having pepper sprinkled on my food but lately, I'm beginning to get hooked on it as I think it taste really good (And currently, I'm hooked on white pepper, tee-hee). I know pepper is just a spice to enhance the aroma and flavour of food, and although it can be very spicy at times and could cause some throat irritation, still I find it pretty nice. Some health experts even claimed that pepper has its own goodness and several health benefits, such as to improve digestion and promote intestinal health, and not forgetting zero calories. :) Meanwhile, I did a little research on pepper and here's what I found.
According to 'Black Pepper' from Wikipedia.com, black pepper is produced from the still-green unripe berries of the pepper plant. The berries are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the fruit, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The berries are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the fruit around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer. Once dried, the fruits are called black peppercorns.
White pepper consists of the seed only, with the fruit removed. This is usually accomplished by allowing fully ripe berries to soak in water for about a week, during which the flesh of the fruit softens and decomposes. Rubbing then removes what remains of the fruit, and the naked seed is dried. Alternative processes are used for removing the outer fruit from the seed, including removal of the outer layer from black pepper produced from unripe berries.
And how do pepper gets its spiciness?
Pepper gets its spicy heat mostly from the piperine compound, which is found both in the outer fruit and in the seed. Refined piperine, milligram-for-milligram, is about one per cent as hot as the capsaicin in chile peppers. The outer fruit layer, left on black pepper, also contains important odour-contributing terpenes including pinene, sabinene, limonene, caryophyllene, and linalool, which give citrusy, woody, and floral notes. These scents are mostly missing in white pepper, which is stripped of the fruit layer. White pepper can gain some different odours (including musty notes) from its longer fermentation stage.[McGee p. 428.]
Ahh... pretty interesting, ain't it? Hmm, I think I shall sprinkle more pepper instead of salt next time I have my meal... and since pepper is spicy, does it have anything to do with slimming? Tee-hee ;P
According to 'Black Pepper' from Wikipedia.com, black pepper is produced from the still-green unripe berries of the pepper plant. The berries are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the fruit, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The berries are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the fruit around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer. Once dried, the fruits are called black peppercorns.
White pepper consists of the seed only, with the fruit removed. This is usually accomplished by allowing fully ripe berries to soak in water for about a week, during which the flesh of the fruit softens and decomposes. Rubbing then removes what remains of the fruit, and the naked seed is dried. Alternative processes are used for removing the outer fruit from the seed, including removal of the outer layer from black pepper produced from unripe berries.
And how do pepper gets its spiciness?
Pepper gets its spicy heat mostly from the piperine compound, which is found both in the outer fruit and in the seed. Refined piperine, milligram-for-milligram, is about one per cent as hot as the capsaicin in chile peppers. The outer fruit layer, left on black pepper, also contains important odour-contributing terpenes including pinene, sabinene, limonene, caryophyllene, and linalool, which give citrusy, woody, and floral notes. These scents are mostly missing in white pepper, which is stripped of the fruit layer. White pepper can gain some different odours (including musty notes) from its longer fermentation stage.[McGee p. 428.]
Ahh... pretty interesting, ain't it? Hmm, I think I shall sprinkle more pepper instead of salt next time I have my meal... and since pepper is spicy, does it have anything to do with slimming? Tee-hee ;P
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