History of Sambal ● Is There Sambal Before the Portuguese? From Piper to Capsicum

The spicy hot relish known as sambal is ubiquitous in Indonesian, Malaysian and Singapore cuisine. Sambal can be a condiment or an ingredient in a dish (e.g. sambal kang kong, sambal squid, etc).

Sambal likely came from the Javanese word sambel. The spicy relish is found throughout Nusantara (Malay archipelago) in many varieties, localised according to local taste and availability of ingredients. 

The Indonesians have a different sambal for every occasion and dish. Among the 1,600 recipes of Indonesian traditional dishes in the Mustika Rasa cookbook of 1967, there are 63 sambal recipes. The massive project ordered by president Sukarno was an effort to unite the vast, diverse country through its rich culinary heritage.

In 2017, Dr Murdijati Gardjito, a renowned food researcher from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, identified 255 varieties of sambal in Indonesia. About half were from Java. 

Broadly speaking there are cooked and raw sambals - cooked sambal is more prevalent in western Indonesia, while in the east of the country, raw sambal is more common. 

It is often assumed that sambal came about only in the 16th century after the Portuguese and Spanish brought the capsicum annuum chili pepper plant from America to Nusantara (Malay archipelago). That is true of the ubiquitous fiery looking red (or green) chili relish used in many Malaysian, Indonesian and Singapore dishes today. 

However, spicy relish is part of Nusantara cuisine long before the arrival of Europeans to our region.

Piper retrofractum - Javanese long pepper

Before the South American capsicum annuum chili pepper appeared in Nusantara, spicy relish were made with piper (pepper) which is known as cabai, cabya, cabe or lombok. A well known cabya is the Javanese long pepper or Balinese long pepper (piper retrofractum).

According to Indonesian archaeologist, Titi Surti Nastiti, cabya (piper) was sold in markets during the Mataram kingdom era circa 10th century. Source.

The 14th century Majapahit era Javanese Nagarakretagama manuscript (i.e. before the Europeans arrived in the 16th century) mentions a Lombok island (east of Bali island). Lombok is the Javanese word for chili pepper (albeit capsicum) even today. During Majapahit times, Lombok island is probably named after piper pepper native and / or grown on the island.

When the Europeans brought American capsicum (chili pepper) to Nusantara in the 16th century, sambals made with cabya (Javanese piper pepper) and other hot spices like ginger and andaliman pepper were already widely used.

Capsicum chili pepper gradually displaced piper (Javanese pepper) in sambals. While capsicum fruits 12 - 15 weeks after sowing, piper requires 3 - 4 years before fruiting. Furthermore, capsicum tastes twice as hot as piper. This and higher cost may account for piper's decline in popularity in sambal.

Not only did capsicum chili pepper replaced piper (pepper) in sambals, it even replaced it in name i.e. today, cabya, cabe, cabai or lombok refer to capsicum chili pepper instead of Javanese pepper (piper).

Jamu hawker in Jogjakarta 1910

Meanwhile, piper (Javanese pepper) became known as cabe Jawa, cabe jamu or jamu chili. Instead of sambals, cabe Jawa is now more often an ingredient in traditional Javanese herbal medicine or jamu.

Sambal made with piper (Javanese pepper) became rare. I have not come across any personally before.

References:

Mustika Rasa

Making cabe ijo (green sambal) in Jakarta

Image of Javanese long pepper courtesy of Wikipedia, image of jamu hawker courtesy of Wikipedia, image of sambal courtesy of Flickr, image of Nagarakretagama courtesy of Flickr.