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| Yesterday, we had multiple scientists with the same name. Today, we have multiple plants with the same name. Coincidence? Well, yes. From Atlas Obscura: You know, in case you were wondering, as I did for most of my life, how the ubiquitous ground black pepper got the same name as the bell and chili peppers. And why Dr Pepper seemed to contain none of the above, but that's outside the scope of today's article. As an undergrad Classics major, I first heard of long pepper as something the Ancient Romans ate. I wasn't a Classics major, but I took Latin classes in high school, whereupon I found out that the Ancient Romans ate all kinds of weird (to us) stuff. Scientifically known as Piper longum, this elongated cousin of black pepper tastes more complex, but carries a similar zing thanks to piperine, a different compound from the capsaicin that gives chilies their heat. It's generally possible to know which of the peppers someone's talking about by context, so it's not all that confusing, at least to me. What is sometimes confusing is using the word "heat" to describe the spiciness of chili peppers and their relatives. The English word pepper traces back through Latin to the Sanskrit pippali, which specifically meant “long pepper” (and still does in Hindi and Urdu). I do like etymology, but I didn't double-check this assertion. Europeans once loved long pepper so much that they called all “hot” spices by its name: First its relatives, black and cubeb peppers, then unrelated plants like Mexican chili. Two other mysteries that haunted me for a very long time: why is (ground black) pepper such a staple on American tables, where it shares pride of place with that other seasoning that Romans were obsessed with (salt). And why it's so goddamned hard to get any pepper out of most of its shakers. The article goes on to list many varieties of pepper, though not peppers, and the answer to that first mystery is at least partially solved (it is, of course, linked to colonialism). As for the other mystery, well, probably, it's because the holes in a pepper shaker are too small compared to the flakes of ground pepper inside. But that's not really an answer; it just kicks the question down the road: Why are the holes in a pepper shaker too small compared to the flakes inside? The only thing I can come up with is aesthetics: you want the salt and pepper shakers to look similar. Historically, making matters worse, a salt shaker has more holes than a pepper shaker, which sometimes only has one. I can only conclude that the people who come up with these table etiquette things didn't really expect anyone to use the pepper shaker; it's just there to provide balance for the salt shaker. Incidentally, thanks to budget constraints, the original Star Trek series used what was then futuristic and sleek-looking salt and pepper shakers for some of the medical tools. That's funny enough, but what was the very first Star Trek episode launched upon an unsuspecting 1966 public? The Man Trap, which featured an alien who craved salt. Still missing from that show after nearly 60 years and hundreds of stories told: aliens who crave pepper. Probably they all died off-screen trying to get it out of the goddamned shaker. |
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