Pepper is small in quantity and great in virtue. —Plato
Do you use black pepper when you cook, or at the table to season your food? The universal appeal of pepper in all cuisines makes it the most commonly used spice on the planet. In the spice world, pepper is king.
Historically this was not always so. Here is a spicy sprinkling of pepper history.
- Primarily, the strong taste of pepper was used liberally to disguise the taste of meat that was spoiled, a common occurrence before modern refrigeration came onto the scene.
- Pepper was so hard to get, and so valuable, it was used as currency to pay taxes in Ancient Greece and Rome.
- It was a measure of a man’s worth because it was so expensive. Only the wealthy could afford it, and a man’s wealth was judged by how much pepper was in his pantry.
- During medieval times, pepper was literally — pound for pound—worth its weight in gold.
- Pepper was so prized it was left to beneficiaries in wills and bestowed as dowries.
- During the Middle Ages in France, tenants paid their rent in peppercorns. The expression “peppercorn rent” comes from the token payment of a single peppercorn to signify the long-term relationship between a tenant and landowner. A larger supply of pepper could buy a serf his freedom
- Slaves who worked on spice trading ships had their pockets sewn to prevent them from stealing any of this most precious commodity.
