The spice of 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.

- A riddle authored by Saint Aldhelm, a 7th-century Bishop of Sherborne.

Variety may be the spice of life; and for many a mortal, it conjures up various and manifold memories: mostly delightful, but sometimes displeasing when the charm sours. However, unlike those expeditions of expediency to experience pleasure and pain; the delight and ache derived through the spice of life referred to here, is obtained from the king of spice. Since ancient times, nations have fought wars because of it.

Continents

It was cause célèbre for the discovery of hitherto unknown continents and new sea routes. It was worth its weight in gold; and was known as, and considered to be "black gold".

It is nothing else but the humble pepper seed - a staple in every kitchen of today. Pepper was one of the five essential luxuries of import upon which the foreign trade of the Roman Empire was dependent; the others being African ivory, Chinese silk, German amber, and Arabian incense.

Pepper has been in use as a spice in India since prehistoric times. Pepper is native to India. It was a part of Indian cooking since at least 2000 BC. Black pepper, along with other spices from India, Sri Lanka, and lands farther east, changed the course of world history.

Discovery

It was in some part the preciousness of these spices that led to the Portuguese efforts to find a sea route to India during the age of discovery and consequently to the Portuguese colonial occupation of that country; and to the European discovery and colonisation of the Americas. After the Middle Ages, virtually all of the black pepper found in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa was from India's Malabar (Kerala) region. By the 16th century, due to the Portuguese influence, pepper was also cultivated in Java, Sumatra, Madagascar, Malaysia, and elsewhere in South-east Asia, including Sri Lanka.

Black peppercorns were found stuffed in the nostrils of Ramses II, Pharaoh of Egypt, placed there as part of the mummification rituals shortly after his death in 1223 BC. Little else, excepting that it was in use, is known about the use of pepper in ancient Egypt and how it reached the Nile from India. Pepper was familiar in Greece at least as early as the 4th century BC - though it was probably an uncommon and expensive item, which only the very rich could afford. Trade routes of the time were by land, or in ships which sailed hugging the coastlines of the Arabian Sea.

In the culinary world, pepper is the third most added ingredient to recipes, with water and salt leading the race.

Majority

We take it for granted, but the vast majority of savoury recipes include some form of black pepper as an ingredient.

During the early Roman Empire, especially after Rome's conquest of Egypt in 30 BC, open-ocean crossing of the Arabian Sea directly to southern India's Malabar Coast was near routine. Once the pepper got to the Roman ports, it was traded ounce for ounce with precious metals. In the Middle Ages, pepper was an accepted currency as it was ideal for trade because it does not deteriorate over time - provided it was kept dry and out of sunlight. Thus, it was possible to pay rent, taxes, and dowries with this spice.

According to the Roman geographer Strabo, the Romans used to send a fleet of around 120 ships on an annual one-year trip to India and back. The fleet timed its travel across the Arabian Sea to take advantage of the predictable monsoon winds. Returning from India, the ships travelled up the Red Sea, from where the cargo was hauled overland up to the river Nile. From there it was barged to Alexandria, and shipped from there to Italy and Rome. The rough geographical outlines of this trade route would dominate the pepper trade into Europe for a millennium and a half to come.

Spice

Pepper, known as the King of Spices and the Master Spice, still accounts for one-fourth of the world's spice trade. Tunisians lead in the consumption of pepper, with half a pound (250 gms) per person per year. Americans consume about one-quarter pound (125 gms) per year. It was likely that this high intake of pepper per person by the Tunisians had somehow caused the adrenaline to flow in them, and that might have led to the commencement of the Arab spring. I wonder if Sri Lankans should emulate and begin to consume more pepper than chillies? May be at least then we may be sufficiently spiced up to oppose corruption, nepotism, and similar ills that afflict our society.

Although always prized as a flavour-enhancing spice, the peppercorn first gained fame for medicinal purposes as a digestive stimulant and expectorant. Its hot and pungent flavour causes the membranes inside the nose and throat to exude a lubricating secretion, helpful to those in respiratory distress as an aid to cough up offending phlegm and mucus. Pepper was also used, in an external ointment, to relieve skin afflictions and hives. Black pepper can be an effective deterrent to insects.

A solution of one-half teaspoon freshly ground pepper to one quart of warm water sprayed on plants can be toxic to ants, potato bugs, silverfish, and even roaches and moths. A sprinkling of ground pepper will also deter insect paths in non-garden areas.

Experience

Thus, if variety in usage and variance of experience had been the hallmark of this spice of life: the humble king of spice - the peppercorn, why not we humans emulate and add more variety to our life too. We tend to be, and are so bound by routine, that we forget that variety is the spice of life.

It is not as though life lacked the diversity that is the chief ingredient of all spiciness of life. But, we seemed to lack the raciness to indulge in it.

See you this day next week. Until then, keep thinking; keep laughing. Life is mostly about these two activities.

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