Whole spices
Long pepper (pippali)
Piper longum
Small catkins of tiny fused berries, hotter and sweeter than black pepper; India's older pepper.
Also called: pippali, pipli, pipal, indian long pepper, thippili, cabe jawa
Around the world: पिप्पली, पीपली (hi) · திப்பிலி (ta)
- Hot & numbing
- Warm & sweet
- Resinous & piney
- Medium
Flavour and aroma
hot, sweet, woody, lingering. Hot, sweet and lingering.
- Heat
- Medium
- Forms
- whole, ground
How to use it
dry roast · Spice roasting (dry-roasting) technique
Warm in a dry pan over low heat for 1–2 minutes until fragrant.
grind · Dry grinding technique
Break into pieces in a mortar first, then grind with the other spices; it is too hard for a small grinder whole.
- Ground into nihari and other meat masalas
- Pickles and some regional curries
- Ground over food in place of black pepper
Identifying good quality
Grey-black, finger-shaped catkins 2–4 cm long, made of tiny fused berries. They should be hard, dry and strongly fragrant when broken.
- Not to be confused with Black peppercorns: Black pepper is round, single berries.
Origin and history
Origin: The Indian subcontinent, especially north-east India, and South-East Asia.. Grown and used: Grown in India (Assam, Kerala, West Bengal), Nepal and Sri Lanka. A related species (Piper retrofractum) is used in Indonesia..
Long pepper was known to the Greeks and Romans; Pliny the Elder recorded it as dearer than black pepper. It was widely used in India before chillies arrived but has since faded from most kitchens. It survives in some meat masalas, pickles and Ayurvedic preparations.
Well documented
Recipes with long pepper (pippali)
No recipes use it yet.