Long Pepper - Ethiopian


Dried Ethiopian Long Pepper Seed Heads [African Long Pepper; Timiz (Ethiopia);Piper capense]

This pepper, related to the round black pepper, produces loose seed spikes embedded with many tiny peppercorns, each inside a fruit capsule. The plant is native to moist regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, from Sierra Leone on the Atlantic coast to the Ethiopian highlands in East Africa. It is found south as far as Angola, Tanzania and South Africa.

The seed heads of this pepper are used as a spice mostly in Ethiopia and Eritrea, but the plant is gathered in the wild for medicinal use in other parts of Africa. The seed heads are not interchangeable with Indian Long Pepper as they are much milder and sweeter. Their flavor and hotness is more similar to Cloves and Cardamom than to black pepper. The photo specimens were up to 0.25 inch diameter and 1.9 inches long (6.4 x 48 mm).

More on Pepper Family.
More on Spices.


Live Ethiopian Long Pepper Plant This photo is of a living Ethiopian Pepper Plant with blooming flower head, taken in South Africa. Leaves, bark, and root tubers are collected in the wild for various medicinal purposes. All parts of the plant are considered safe and medicinal.   Photo by Franz Xaver distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.

Buying:

  This product is available in some Ethiopian markets in North America, but is also available on-line. It is much less available than Indian Long Pepper, with which it is not interchangeable. The photo specimens were purchased on-line for 2021 US $5.00 per ounce (plus shipping). The Ethiopian markets in Los Angeles County are quite inconvenient for me to get to, so I have not checked them out yet.

Cooking:

  This spice is simply ground whole and added to various spice mixes, or directly into soups and stews.

Subst:

  About 1/3 each Black Pepper, Cardamom and Cloves is pretty close, but noticeably sweeter.

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