A History of Pepper · The King of Spice

The pepper we take for granted today was once worth its weight in gold. It was so valuable that European countries invested fortunes in armadas and raced each other on risky expeditions in search of the proverbial Black Gold.

Pepper originates from the west coast of southern India which is known as the Malabar Coast or Spice Coast or state of Kerala. From south India, the use of pepper first spread west across the Arabian Sea to the Middle East.

The Egyptians were using pepper as far back as the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II (reign 1279–1213 BC) but not as food seasoning or flavouring. Pepper was used in divination rituals as the Egyptians believed that pepper fragrance put humans in a state which allowed them to connect with gods. Pepper was stuffed in the nasal passages of Pharaoh Ramesses II's mummy.

Europeans first learnt about pepper through the Ancient Greeks. After Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 331 BC, the Greeks followed the Egyptian practice of using pepper fragrances for divinations. The Greeks also used pepper as medicine.

The demand for pepper flourished during the Roman empire (27 BC - 476 AD) when the Romans acquired a taste for pepper as a seasoning and flavouring. 

In the Roman cookbook Apicius (dated 900 AD) over 400 of the 500 recipes (i.e. 80%) inside had pepper as one of its ingredients.

During the Byzantine empire (395 - 1453), the Arabs and Italians (Venetians and Genoas) monopolised pepper trade, making it was very expensive for other Europeans. The Venetians and Genoas were running the pepper trade between Alexandria (Egypt) and the European cities.

The Arabs kept the source of Black Gold (in India) a secret from their European customers (especially the Italians). To protect the source, fanciful tales were weaved about pepper's source.

One tale had it that pepper grew on trees guarded by fierce flying serpents. To get the pepper, the trees were set on fire which chased the flying serpents away (but only for a while). When the flying serpents were away, the burnt pepper was quickly harvested before the fearsome creatures returned. Hence, black pepper cost so much - according to the tale.

When the Byzantine capital city of Constantinople fell to the Ottoman empire in 1453, the Ottomans also controlled Egypt, thus cutting off the Europeans' access to pepper. This triggered a frenzied search among Europeans for alternate supplies of pepper. 

In 1497, Portugal commissioned Vasco Da Gama on a mission to look for the source of pepper. The Portuguese armada rounded the Cape of Good Hope and arrived at the Malabar Coast six months later. Finding the source of pepper, the Portuguese broke the Arab monopoly of the pepper trade.

The Spaniards, English, Dutch, Belgians and other Europeans were hot on the heels of the Portuguese. Like the Portuguese, they established colonies across the globe in the Americas, Africa, India, and southeast Asia. Pepper was successfully transplanted in the new colonies which gradually led to greater supply of the once exclusive spice.

As the Portuguese expanded their empire eastwards, conquering Malacca in 1511, they arrived in the kingdom of Samudera Pasai in the 1520s. The Portuguese found that Samudera Pasai in north Sumatra also produced and exported pepper (to China and Arabia) but concluded that they were not as fragrant as the Cochin or Kerala variety.

Once the Black Gold, greater supply led to slow decline in pepper prices and soon became available to the general public at affordable prices. With the rise of French cuisine in Europe, which emphasise the natural flavour of fresh ingredients, the demand for spices such as pepper declined.

Black pepper, white pepper, green pepper, what is the difference?

Black, green or white pepper, they all came from the same plant. The difference lies in the processing.

Green pepper is unprocessed, straight off the stem of pepper berries.

Black pepper is sun dried with the skin intact i.e. the green skin turns black on drying.

White pepper is green pepper soaked in water and the skin removed before sun drying.

     

When Stamford Raffles of the British East India Company arrived in Singapore in the 1819, he noted that there were some 30 Teochew Chinese ran pepper cum gambir plantations on the island. Gambir leaves were used as a leather tanning and cloth dying agent. Gambir and pepper were grown together as wastes from gambir planting was used as fertiliser for pepper plants.

By the 1850s, the number of pepper and gambir plantations in Singapore grew to some 800. They then expanded into Johor. As most pepper and gambir plantations in Johor were Teochew ran, Johor Bahru town became known as "Little Swatow".

The peppery bak kut teh or pork bone soup made with only pork ribs, pepper and garlic is synonymous with Singapore bak kut teh. Known as Teochew bak kut teh, it is generally assumed that the peppery dish was created by Singapore port workers who picked up peppercorns that fell off the sacks here and there at the harbour and had used these to make pork soup. However, this is at the moment, food lore without any evidence.

I am proposing a hypothesis that someone working in the Singapore pepper plantations may have popped peppercorn into a pot of pork soup, thus creating Singapore Teochew bak kut teh.

Like the port worker theory there is no evidence though my intuition leans towards the pepper plantation workers as their opportunities to create the dish were greater as they worked with pepper all day. The plantations owners / workers, in particular, had some expertise in pepper. Port worker or plantation hand, I shall continue to look for evidence for who should rightly be given the credit for creating Singapore Teochew bak kut teh.

       

                     

             

             

               

               

             

           

           

           

                         

           

             

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            A post shared by Tony Boey Johor Kaki (@johorkaki)          

       

     

            

Written by Tony Boey on 20 July 2021  

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References:

Image of pepper plantation courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. Image of Vasco Da Gama landing in Calicut courtesy of Wikipedia. Image of Alexander the Great courtesy of Wikipedia. Image of Ramesses II courtesy of Wikipedia. Image of black pepper courtesy of Wikipedia. Image of fall of Constantinople courtesy of Wikipedia. Map of Malabar Coast courtesy of Wikipedia. Image of Apicius courtesy of Wikipedia.