Spices, Their Nature and Growth; The Vanilla Bean; A Talk on Tea

Pepper and Capsicums

Reading edition

Pepper is the dried berry of the pepper-plant (Piper nigrum), a climbing vine ten to twelve feet high, indigenous to the East Indies, but cultivated in many tropical countries.

Illustration from Spices, Their Nature and Growth; The Vanilla Bean; A Talk on Tea

A Group of Pepper Mills

The berries are harvested when they begin to turn red, and the process of drying out blackens and shrivels them. They are not picked separately, but in spikes or bunches, and are then placed on mats to dry. At night the berries are placed under cover.

The average yield per vine is eight to ten pounds each year.

The different varieties of Black Pepper derive their name from the localities in which they are grown or the ports whence they are shipped, as Singapore, Lampong, Sumatra, Tellicherry, Acheen, Malabar, Trang, etc.

White Pepper

This is obtained by decorticating or removing the skin from the fully ripened black peppercorns—accomplished by maceration.

White Whole Pepper grains are grayish white. They are more nearly spherical in shape than the Black Pepper berries, and have light-colored lines running from top to bottom. The more common varieties are known as Siam, Singapore and Penang.

Red Pepper

The U. S. Standards describe Red Pepper as the dried ripe fruit of any species of capsicum, a genus of the nightshade family indigenous to the American tropics. It is now cultivated in nearly all warm and temperate countries, both commercially and in the kitchen-garden. The leading commercial varieties are Zanzibar, Africa, Indias, and Japan.

Paprika

Paprika is botanically described as Capsicum annuum. The pods are large and brilliant to dark red. It grows in the temperate and torrid zones. It is cultivated principally in Spain (Pimiinton) and Hungary. The Spanish-grown product is sweet and mild, the Hungarian usually of a mildly pungent flavor. Paprika is used in cooking for its color as well as flavor. It is rapidly finding favor among American housewives.

(Cinnamon or Cassia)

Ceylon Cinnamon

Batavia Cinnamon

Chinese Cassia (Cinnamon)

Saigon Rolls

China Cassia Rolls

Cassia Buds

Buds Natural size, all others ½ Natural size