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Black Peppercorns: Green Pepper Blanched and Sun-Dried
Black pepper is the unripe green fruit of the pepper vine, dipped in hot water and dried until the skin shrinks black and wrinkled. Picking starts when the first berries at the base of a spike turn red. Crushed in a mortar, the dry corns give crushed black pepper.
The picture: unripe green pepper spikes on the vine at Trivandrum, Kerala, in November.
Beginner
About a week with drying
Instructions
1
1
Pick the spikes
Pick the spikes
Pick the spikes when one or two berries at the base start to turn red; the rest are still green and hard.
Materials for this step:
Green Pepper Spikes5 kgTools needed:
Basket
Balance Scale2
2
Strip the berries
Strip the berries
Spread the spikes in the sun for a short while, then strip the berries off and pick out stalks.
Tools needed:
Bamboo Mat3
3
Dip in hot water
Dip in hot water
Dip the berries briefly in very hot water, about a minute (our choice), and drain them. This cleans them and speeds the browning.
Materials for this step:
Water10 litersTools needed:
Stockpot
Hot Plate
Colander4
4
Dry for several days
Dry for several days
Spread them thin on mats in full sun, turn them each day and cover them at night. In several days the skins go black and wrinkled and the corns rattle hard.
Tools needed:
Bamboo Mat5
5
Clean and sort
Clean and sort
Winnow off dust and light corns and sort by size through sieves. Store whole in a closed jar.
Tools needed:
Winnowing Tray
Sieve Set (Graded Mesh)
Glass Jar6
6
Crushed pepper
Crushed pepper
For crushed black pepper, crack a handful at a time coarsely in a mortar. Crush only what you will use soon; the aroma fades.
Tools needed:
Mortar and PestleGlass Jar7
7
Your drying ratio
Your drying ratio
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8
8
Limits
Limits
Picking, hot-water dip and sun drying are as Wikipedia describes black pepper; the dip time is ours; the source gives no yield.
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