Spices and How to Know Them

by Walter M. Gibbs

SINGAPORE (City of the Lion)

VIEW IN HARBOR OF PENANG FROM STEAMER LOOKING NORTHWEST
Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N. Y.

It is hard to estimate the amount of black pepper used each year, but it is very great. The United States consumes more spices pro rata than any other country. This fact is well known by exporters after long experience, and now many spices are shipped direct to the United States ports instead of by the way of London.

The chief use of pepper is that of a spice added principally to meats, but also to other food substances. Pepper is sometimes used for medicinal purposes, as it stimulates the stomach on account of the piperine it contains, and thus aids in digestion. In removing ringworms it has few equals. The native doctors of India consider it a stimulant, and they prescribe an infusion of the toasted berries in cases of cholera morbus; it will check violent vomiting in that disease when many other remedies fail. They also prepare a liniment from pepper which they think has sovereign virtue in chronic rheumatism. In Europe it is sometimes used as a stimulant in gout and palsy, and the watery infusion has proved a useful gargle in relaxation of the uvula. The dose of black pepper should be about six grains.

The chief enemies of the pepper vine are white ants, the black bug and white bug, the borer, male crickets, and the Cinchana caterpillar. A strong solution of tuba root is sufficient to keep away white ants, and tuba root mixed with juice of common tobacco will prevent the black and white bug work, and in mild cases ashes or sulphur and lime applied early in the morning will be found sufficient. The borer begins by attacking the joints of the branches and its presence is known by the light yellowish color of the bark. There is no known preventive for the borer, except to catch it before it has gone too far. It always works around the joints, and when it has completed the circle, it commences to bore down the center of the branch, and sometimes, but very seldom, the stem. The male cricket goes for the roots, but does the least damage; if it has gone too far to be dug out, the best way is to plug up its hole as far as possible with clay.

The green Cinchana caterpillar attacks the leaves only, but may destroy many of them; the only plan to make way with it is to send a coolie around to collect and destroy the insects.

Whole pepper is seldom or never adulterated, although much is uncleaned. Old, water-soaked stock is at times found on the market. Several years ago two thousand bags were thrown into the Thames River from a wharf which was on fire, and was later offered for sale at auction. The powdered article, however, is adulterated more than any other condiment used as a table spice. The adulteration is made by almost any cheap, foreign article attainable and in a most ridiculous and not only unlawful but inhuman way. The probable reasons why pepper is selected for this more extensive abuse are found in the fact that adulteration is more easily covered up and in the further fact that, owing to the large amount of pepper used, the gain is much greater.

The quality of a ground pepper can be told by an expert from its weight and color, and on examination with a lens of low magnifying power. The particles are not coarsely ground, and it is not difficult to pick out pieces of husk, yellow corn, and rice; if necessary, a more careful investigation under a microscope of higher power will serve for confirmation. Black pepper is much more liable to be adulterated than the white, although it is perfectly easy to dilute the latter with broken rice or cracker dust, or with long pepper. There is a disposition many times on the part of those who can afford it to have the best that can be made, in appearance at least, and it is thought by some that the whiter the color of the pepper the purer the quality. This is a great mistake. The removing of the outer covering of the black in order to make white pepper removes the most pungent part of the fruit. This work is sometimes carried so far that, while the fruit, when ground, is nearly as white as starch, there is little left but starch. It is questioned whether this practice is not as much an adulteration as the skimming of milk, as it takes away the most valuable part of the fruit. Long pepper is also used to adulterate pepper, but the taste and smell of the long pepper cannot be disguised, and its starch is nearly double the size of that of ordinary black pepper. Not only are the pepper shells used to adulterate ground pepper, but also other by-products, such as middlings, wheat, corn, ground olive stones, cocoanut shells, almond shells, mustard hulls, long pepper, Cayenne pepper, sago, and linseed.