Welcome to my blog about the Szechuan peppercorn, also known as Sichuan pepper. You’ll learn about its history and how to use it in your favorite Chinese and Asian dishes.
Follow me for more information on this fascinating ingredient in your favorite Chinese dishes.
You can order the Szechuan Peppercorn in bulk online and it comes with a cool leaflet that describes it and its uses. The Szechuan peppercorn has a unique taste. It is pungent, slightly sweet, and fragrant. It is about as hot as a jalapeno but the heat is tamed by the sweetness.”
I have some experience with peppers in general, but nothing with this one. I read the leaflet and here are my two favorite parts:
“The Scoville Scale measures the heat of peppers from 0 to 16 million. The Szechuan pepper registers at 30,000 to 50,000 units on this scale. By comparison, Tabasco sauce registers at 350 units.”
“The most common use for this pepper is as an ingredient in Chinese cooking. It is also used in Korean cooking as well.”
I’m still not quite sure what makes this ingredient so great to add to your soup, but apparently it’s delicious!
Many restaurants here in the east coast of America serve a Szechuan Chicken dish (also known as Kung Pao Chicken) that is redolent with the aroma of Szechuan peppercorn. If you have ever visited China and eaten in a restaurant there, you may have noticed the same aroma in many dishes. It is a special spice that is unique to this part of the world.
Taste: It has a flavor similar to black pepper, but distinctly different from it. It has an interesting citrus-floral aroma that is more intense than black pepper. The taste is pungent and spicy, with citrus overtones.
This aromatic spice comes from the prickly ash plant native to Southwest China and Northern Vietnam. The prickly ash resembles sumac, but with shorter thorns. The berries from this shrub are dried in the sun and then ground into powder form or made into cakes or blocks to be used in cooking.
Taste: Szechuan peppercorn is added to many Chinese dishes, especially meat, fish and poultry and also some spicy soups and noodle dishes. It can be used whole or crushed before serving. A pinch adds an intense citrus-floral aroma and pungent spicy taste to any dish.
The Szechuan peppercorn is an essential ingredient in Chinese cooking, especially in the famous Szechuan cuisine. This little fruit is extremely hot and spicy when raw, with a numbing effect on the tongue. When cooked, however, it mellows considerably.
The Szechuan peppercorn has a citrus flavor similar to lemon or lime, but with a very distinctive aroma and a slightly floral scent. The aroma comes from a chemical compound called isothiocyanate that gives the peppercorn its characteristic taste and smell. Isothiocyanates are found in other food plants as well, such as cabbage and mustard; they are also responsible for the hotness of mustard oils.
When used in China, the Szechuan peppercorn is usually either stir-fried or added to soups in order to release its aromatic properties. It can also be used whole in stir-fries or stewed dishes, where its whole berries add a unique flavor to the dish.
In Western countries, this spice is most commonly used in powdered form; it is often combined with salt to act as a rub for meats before grilling or barbecuing them. It has also been used as an herbal remedy for centuries; it has antibacterial
The Szechuan peppercorn, also known as the prickly ash or Chinese pepper, is the fruit of plants in the genus Zanthoxylum. In Chinese cuisine, it is mostly used as a spice and has various names: it is called 花椒 (literally “flower pepper”) in Mandarin, which refers to its resemblance to flower buds. It is also called 剁椒 (“chopped pepper”), because the ripe fruit looks like a pile of tiny green peppers that have been chopped up. In Cantonese cuisine it may be called 紅辣椒 (“red spicy pepper”). In Szechuan cuisine it is commonly known as 山椒 (“mountain pepper”). The shānjiāo itself has little flavor, but when added as a seed to food it releases an intensely pungent aroma and flavor.
It is usually used in powdered form as part of a spice mixture such as chili powder. The chili powder mixture is often added to soups or other savory dishes and sometimes used as a replacement for black pepper. It can also be used to make hot sauce or cayenne pepper mix.**
The Szechuan peppercorn, also known as Chinese coriander, is a spice originating in Sichuan Province in China. It is used extensively in Sichuan cuisine and gives the region’s cuisine its distinctive flavor.
The spice is not a true peppercorn but rather a berry from the prickly ash tree, Aquilaria sinensis, native to the Sichuan district. The spice itself is ruby-red when fresh but turns brown quickly upon drying. The dried berries have a deep red color and are much more commonly available and used than the fresh ones; however, both are commonly called la jiao (Chinese: 辣椒) (literally hot pepper) in Mandarin and lajiao in Cantonese, which can lead to confusion as the Japanese sansho pepper (also known as Szechuan pepper) is sometimes called “Szechuan pepper” in English.
The distinct citrusy taste of Szechuan pepper comes from the chemical compound methoxypyrazine, a kind of pyrazine that is structurally related to safrole and other grape-derived aromatics that give spices their distinctive flavors. The most abundant component of Szechuan pepper is thought to be 2-isoprop
Scoville Heat Units (SHU) represent the amount of capsaicin present in a pepper. Capsaicin is the chemical that makes peppers taste spicy, and is an irritant for mammals (including humans). The more SHU a pepper has, the hotter it is.
Szechuan peppers have an average of about 200 000 SHU, which makes them some of the hottest peppers in existence. The reason they are so hot is because, unlike other peppers, all the heat of Szechuan peppers comes from capsaicin. This also means there are no other flavors or scents associated with Szechuan peppers.
Capsaicin is an irritant for mammals, which means it causes a burning sensation when it comes in contact with our bodies. It is an alkaloid that binds to pain receptors and sends a signal to the brain that something is burning. When consumed in small amounts, capsaicin acts as a stimulant, but can cause side effects like sweating and heart palpitations if consumed in large doses.