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Mac khen - Vietnamese mountain pepper

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€5,95 EUR

€198,33 kg

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This mountain pepper, called triphal in India and ma khaen in Laos, comes from the mountainous north of Vietnam. The pepper grows there exclusively in the wild.

Mac khen is like ma khaen a Szechuan pepper, with a mildly pungent spiciness and the unmistakable citrus flavour that becomes stronger and sweeter when the pepper is heated. The tree on which this pepper grows is the Indian mountain pepper or in Indian triphal, which grows naturally in an area called the Indamalaya, the ecozone that extends from India to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, including Vietnam. The tree grows there up to 1,500 metres in humid, dense forests. On average, a tree first bears fruit when it is 5 to 6 years old, and yields 5 kg of seeds.

The pepper is grown in the mountainous Tay Bac collected, the northwestern region with the provinces of Điện Biên, Lai Châu, Sơn La and Hòa Bình. It work is mainly done by done by women belonging to the Thai and Hmong minorities.

This mountain pepper is the berry of a wild Szechuan pepper. The berry comes from the Zanthoxylum rhetsa, also called Zanthoxylum limonella. The pepper is famous for its flavor palette, not so much for its pungency, as you would expect from a Szechuan pepper.

The berry is quite small, just like the berry of the andaliman and, just like the andaliman, is harvested by hand. No easy task because the stem and branches of the Zanthoxylum rhetsa have venomous spines. The berries grow in smaller clusters, which are dismantled to pick out the berries, which manifest themselves as 'mini star anise' when dried. Each berry contains one seed.

The pepper grows in northern Laos, Thailand, Nepal, Vietnam and India, where it is also found in the Western Ghats. It is even part of the regional cuisines of Karnataka, known as the birthplace of black pepper.

The unique sharpness experience of sanshool

Characteristic of all Zanthoxylum peppers, and therefore also of the Szechuan pepper, is the tingling sensation you experience on the tip of your tongue due to a substance in the pepper called sanshool, named after the Japanese sanshō. The pungency is caused by the amides in the peel of the fruit: α-, β-, γ- and δ-sanshool, α hidroxy sanshool and β-hidroxy sanshool. The numbing effect is mainly caused by γ sanshool and α hidroxy sanshool. The amount of α-hidroxy-sanshool in the berries can amount to (well over) 50 ‰ of the dry weight, of γ sanshool around 5‰.

The tingling is accompanied by a slight numbness, jokingly compared to tasting a 9 volt battery. A single berry is enough to experience that! This somatosensation, stimulation by touch, has been used for centuries as an anaesthetic in traditional medicine in Asia. The effect is very complex and the subject of extensive studies. Hydroxy-α-sanshol in particular is said to cause the tingling, and there are certain parallels with the sharpness experience of capsaicin, the sharp substance in chili pepper, but also with menthol and mustard oil.

Smell and taste

The berries have a complex aroma, in which you can taste orange peel and tea, but also anise and menthol, and the sweet notes of angelica. The smell is related to that of black pepper due to the high content of sabinene, which is higher in the dried berry than in the fresh one.This is the flavor palette:

D-limonene (dipentene), sweet orange flavor, found in modest amounts in nutmeg, mace and cardamom,
β-phellandrene, pleasant mint and citrus flavor, also found in allspice,
β-pinene, woody pine odor, as in cumin, pine (cone), juniper and hemp,
sabinene, responsible for the woody, camphor-like taste of black pepper, among other things
carvotan acetone, also minty, as in angelica.
dihydrocarbohydrate as in black pepper and black tea, and
the bitter terpinol, - mainly found in the seeds - as in cranberries.

This pepper is therefore delicious in combination with the spices mentioned above, and in general with products that go well with citrus such as shellfish and shellfish, white fish, white meat, but also other meats and duck. Can be eaten raw and added at the last moment, and is delicious in vegetable salads and in desserts or with fruit.

In India, people prefer to use the pepper called triphal (Marathi) or triphala (Gujarati) 'pure', that is, not in combination with other spices. Tirphal is used mainly in fish dishes, just like in Vietnam, where mountain pepper is eaten with grilled fish, grilled or dried meat and smoked buffalo meat. Sometimes the meat is rubbed with ground mountain pepper (rub) to make the meat better preserved.

Explanation

We have been importing this Zanthoxylum pepper from Vietnam for many years and have been selling it under the name Lai Chau offered, with that the drowned city Lai Châu erend. Now that we also offer the Laotian ma khaen in the shop, we have chosen to use the same name, but in Vietnamese.

Usage

Roast the whole fruits. Crush the fruits, which will release the seeds. These are best crushed with a mortar, the seed pods are best ground. Just like the whole berries (with seeds), provided they are roasted crispy beforehand. In Vietnam, this mountain pepper is often used as a rub for roasted meat.

Features:

100% berries of the Zanthoxylum rhetsa
origin: Tây Bắc, Việt Nam

Assortment

available in glass, stand-up pouch and test tube
glass jar contains 30 grams
stand-up pouches with a capacity of up to 30 to 300 grams
available in 10 ml test tube
larger quantities on request

Gift wrapping

The jar is available in a tasteful gift packaging, consisting of a cube box filled with black tissue paper
For an overview of our gift packaging, please refer to the gift packaging section

General advice