I love freshly ground black pepper! Those who know me know my favorite flavor so well that a friend gave me my personal pepper grinder, with a black bag to carry it with me virtually anywhere.
Pepper loses its flavor and aroma through evaporation, so keep it in an airtight container and out of the sun. For the best flavor, grind whole peppercorns just before eating. But beware: whipping out your personal pepper grinder at McDonald’s might earn you some stares and side-eyed looks.
And I’m not alone in liking pepper. Black pepper represents about 50% of a typical restaurant’s spice usage. The United States is currently the world’s biggest consumer of pepper. As of 2024, the United States imported US$325.6 million (19% of total black pepper imports).
Nor is pepper only recently appreciated. People have used pepper in cooking for over 4,000 years. Ancient Egyptians placed pepper in the nostrils of mummies to accompany the pharaohs over 2,500 years before Christ.
History
Long before “black gold” came to mean oil in some places, in the “Old World” it was a synonym for pepper. Pepper was so valuable in ancient times that people used it to pay taxes, tributes, dowries, and rent. It was weighed like gold and used as a common medium of exchange.
In ancient Greece, priests offered pepper to the gods in sacred rituals and even used it in place of gold.
Pliny the Elder complained in 77 C.E. about the price of peppercorns and the amount of money Rome paid to India every year for black pepper. When Alaric, king of the Visigoths, captured Rome in AD 410, he demanded 3,000 pounds of pepper (in addition to gold and silver) as ransom.
There are some arguments that black pepper may have been available in China as early as the Second Century B.C.E., during the Han Dynasty. However, historians generally agree that the hujiao (胡椒, foreign pepper) described in Chinese records in the Third Century C.E., was piper nigrum, black pepper.
Saint Aldhelm, a seventh century Bishop of Sherborne, wrote a riddle about the value of pepper in his life:
I am black on the outside, clad in a wrinkled cover,
Yet within I bear a burning marrow.
I season delicacies, the banquets of kings, and the luxuries of the table,
Both the sauces and the tenderized meats of the kitchen.
But you will find in me no quality of any worth,
Unless your bowels have been rattled by my gleaming marrow.
In the Middle Ages in Europe, pepper was an acceptable form of currency in some regions. Indeed, at times, peppercorns were worth more by weight than silver. A scornful term for wealthy merchants in medieval Germany was pfeffersack or “pepper sack.” The value of peppercorns, among other spices, made ventures like that of Christopher Columbus a worthwhile financial prospect.
Is Black Pepper Good for Anything but Flavor?
All indications are “Yes.” And here’s an overview!
Like many spices, pepper was historically both a seasoning and a medicine. Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani medicines in India all mention black peppercorns. The Buddhist Samaññaphala Sutta lists pepper as one of the few medicines monks may carry. The 5th century Syriac Book of Medicines prescribes pepper for many illnesses:
- Constipation
- Diarrhea
- Earache
- Gangrene
- Heart disease
- Hernia
- Hoarseness
- Indigestion
- Insect bites
- Insomnia
- Joint pain
- Liver problems
- Lung disease
- Oral abscesses
- Sunburn
- Tooth decay
- Toothaches
Various sources from the 5th century onward also say pepper is good to treat eye problems. Sometimes, physicians applied special ointments containing pepper directly to the eye. There is no current medical evidence that any of these treatments has any benefit; pepper applied directly to the eye would be quite uncomfortable and possibly damaging.
What Modern Research Reveals
Black pepper on its own provides some of the minerals needed in a healthy diet. One tablespoon (6 grams) of ground black pepper contains moderate amounts of vitamin K (13% of the daily value or DV), iron (10% DV), and manganese (18% DV), with trace amounts of other essential nutrients, protein, and dietary fiber.
Scientists at the Royal Society of Medicine and Sabinsa Corporation are studying piperine’s potential to increase absorption of selenium, vitamin B12, beta-carotene, and curcumin, as well as other compounds.
Black pepper and its active compound piperine may have potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Laboratory studies suggest that black pepper may improve cholesterol levels, blood sugar control, and brain and gut health.
Despite these promising findings, more studies in humans are needed to better understand the exact health benefits of black pepper and its concentrated extracts.
Pepper can irritate the intestines. Doctors encourage patients having abdominal surgery or ulcers to eliminate black pepper from their diets.
Components of black pepper are often added to commercial mouthwashes and breath fresheners to treat sore throats.
The caffeine content level of black pepper, as far as I could find, is negligible.
Pepper contains small amounts of safrole, a carcinogenic compound. I found no evidence that this is problematic.
How Many Kinds of Black Pepper are There?
Excluding sweet bell peppers, chili peppers, etc., which are entirely different plants, there’s only one pepper.
Black Pepper comes from the dried fruit peppercorn (piper nigrum). It grows on a perennial flowering vine. When the plants reach maturity, peppercorns are stripped from the stem and then boiled for a few minutes before drying in the sun for several days. They are then flash dried. Black peppercorns are green when harvested and change color while drying.
Commercial pepper comes in many colors—green, black, red, and white—but all come from the same plant, the color determined by how ripe it is and how it has been processed.
White peppercorns are black pepper without skin. Ground table pepper is typically 70% black and 30% white. However, the good stuff is 50/50.
While black pepper is a staple in most American kitchens, white pepper is more popular in French, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Swedish cooking. White pepper, though similar to black, has a sharper and mustier flavor. Use care when substituting one for the other!
Because the berries remain on the vine longer than normal before harvest, red peppercorns are the most expensive available.
Growers classify pepper as either garbled or un-garbled. The garbled variety is black and nearly globular, with a wrinkled surface. The ungarbled variety also has a wrinkled surface, but the color varies from dark brown to black.
Once the peppercorns are dried, pepper spirit and oil can be extracted from the berries by crushing them. Many medicinal and beauty products include pepper spirit. Pepper oil is also popular in ayurvedic massage oil and in certain beauty and herbal treatments.
Note: A completely unrelated species (chili peppers from the Capsicum family) is referred to as “red pepper.” Chili peppers, which are native to the Americas, were originally introduced to Europe as a substitute for black pepper due to their pungent flavor.
And a Few More Pepper Facts
People have long believed pepper is the cause for sneezing. Some sources say that piperine irritates the nostrils, which will cause the sneezing. Others say that it is just the effect of the fine dust in ground pepper. Still others say that pepper is not in fact a very effective sneeze-producer at all. Few if any controlled studies have been carried out to answer the question.
The plant is particular about soil conditions and thrives in soil that is “just right,” not too dry and not too wet.
Pepper is cultivated in tropical regions and is native to the Malabar region of southern India, where it grows as a tall vine with the peppercorns as flowering drupes.
Traders formed spice routes from India to Europe and often fought over them. One source maintains that, in an attempt to establish direct trade with Indian pepper plantations, Christopher Columbus inadvertently stumbled upon the Americas and consequently mislabeled the native inhabitants as “Indians.”
In the past, the expense of pepper limited its consumption to the extremely wealthy classes in India. For the first time, India is now a net pepper importer because of rising consumption among the growing middle class.
Accounting for about 20% of the monetary value of the world’s spice trade, black pepper is now produced mainly in India, Vietnam, Brazil, and Indonesia.
Pastry chefs in fine dining restaurants include black pepper in all kinds of desserts. It’s an especially delicious surprise in chocolate sweets, from fudge brownies and chocolate layer cake to chocolate truffles.
What Pepper isn’t Good For
A commonly held myth claims that cooks in the Middle Ages used pepper to conceal the taste of partially rotten meat. There is no evidence to support this claim, and historians view it as highly unlikely: in the Middle Ages, pepper was a luxury item, affordable only to the very wealthy, who certainly had unspoiled meat available. In addition, at that time, people certainly knew that eating spoiled food would make them sick. In fact, a law in York, England required butchers to sell meat within 24 hours of slaughtering or face a fine!
A similar belief that pepper was in wide use as a preservative is also questionable. It is true that piperine, the compound that gives pepper its spiciness, has some antimicrobial properties. However, at the concentrations present when pepper is used as a spice, the effect is small.
Bottom Line: Given possible health effects, and no evidence of possible “overdose,” this amazing flavor-enhancer is worth adding to your daily cooking: its bold flavor is a great addition to almost any dish, savory or sweet.