The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-01

than n dozen different and distinct kinds
from sweet. sour. mild. hot to bitter. Chut-
news are like preserves, and are composed
Of fruits. roots and aromatic substances
blended with juices.
AN condiments have their functions and
in the tropical dietary are as important
as is blubber in the dietary of the Arctic
regions. Wine is in a certain sense as much
: of Il continent as curry. But let it be
most emphatically stated that the wine
drinker should be abstemious in the use Of
curry. even as your enlightened curry
eater is not a wine drinker, The alcohol
habit may possibly be exchanged to adj
vantage for the red pepper habit, but nc
normal person will mix the two.
The statistics indicate that the con-
sumption Of spices of all kinds in the United
States amounts to about one and a half
pounds per capita per annum, as previously
stated. More than half of this is pepper.
hundreds of varieties Of peppers, red is
! natures color for the entire family. Black
and white are mans work.
The variety we call black pepper grows
on a vine, the berries turning red as they
ripen, and as the vines are trellised for
support and to facilitate pfuoking a we'll
regulated pepper plantation at a distance
somewhat resembles a hop ranch. The
natural habitat of black pepper is the Mala-
bar coast of India, and the best qualities
Vi White anu DIdCh hllOWu 70 COtnlltTCt are
produced there to this day.
Two crops a year are plucked, one dur
ing the winter months, the other in sum-
mer. The vines from cuttings yield quite
well in three or four year and some CON
tinue bearing for twenty, though from
seven to fifteen is considered a good eco
nonic stand, Some plantations produce
mostly good pepper, but not always; some
plantations never produce good pepper.
so much for the Malabar coast. When
we go to the Caromandel coast OF India.
then to Ceylon, Siam. the Straits Settle
ments, Sumatra and lava we find, in adj
dition to sinful practices, climatic and
soil disadvantage s. When the pepper ber-
ries begin to turn red, hanging in clusters
like currants, the essential oil, resin and
piperine are at the best for aroma, flavor
and peptic values.
Then is the time to pluck, and 10 cure by
drying and shrivelling up the c%orticle, which
contains silica and acts as a capsule TO
preserve these desirable qualities. II the
grade OF pepper is tirst sort. If it is cured
in the sun in a proper manner, sifted, as
sorted, handled right, then there is a chance
to get some good black pepper. If the chop
is bad, the curing badly done by i'll regu-
lated artificial heat and other evil befalls
il, then it is simply fit for a cheap market
and America gets her share Of that kind
of pepper;
ITO make white pepper the berries are
allowed to ripen on the wires, so that the
~corticle may be removed. Now. as the oil,
resin and piperine are only at their very
best when the berries are turning red il
naturally follows hat white pepper in the
| ripening process becomes merely spoiled
black pepper.
Add TO the fact Of the loss of favor and
fragrance by ripening tie extractive effect
| OF the water or chemicals used and IL is
not necessary to refer to the unsr eakable
native habits sometimes resorted to in
making white pepper. About the only
fit place I know OF for the average white
! pepper is with an over ripe egg.
.AThe French get most Of their Pepper
! from the Malabar region. the English from
Sin gapore, the Dutch from Sumatra and
/ Java, while the Germans and the Americans
draw their supplies from all these sources.
A pepper expert ought to he able to tell
/ blindfolded whether he liz eating his reprer
at q first class table in France, England or
Holland. In France he will note the fra
GRANGE, in England q peculiar run genoy,
both of which are inferior in Holland.
Standing among tie Planters, English.
Malay and Chinese. in tie reprer rit at
Sin ga pore, when rerTer was at its lowest
point for years before or since, I overheard
a fat Chinaman say 10 the bidder, Coed
enough for American mprket.'
Some months after, at the pepper ex-
change in London, ] saw q sample put up
that was so vile that the brokers seemed
ashamed to take q second look at IL; but IL
wac knocked down, at the lowest price that