Mac khen - Vietnamese mountain pepper

This mountain pepper, which is 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 Like ma khaen, it is a Szechuan pepper with a mild, pungent sharpness and the unmistakable citrus flavor that becomes stronger and sweeter when heated. The tree on which this pepper grows is the mountain pepper, or triphal in Indian, which grows naturally in an area called the Indamalaya, the ecozone extending from India to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, including Vietnam. The tree grows there up to an altitude of 1,500 meters in moist, dense forests. On average, a tree bears fruit for the first time when it is 5 to 6 years old, yielding 5 kg of seeds.

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

This mountain pepper is the berry of a Szechuan pepper found exclusively in the wild. The berry comes from Zanthoxylum rhetsa, also known as Zanthoxylum limonella. The pepper is famous for its flavor profile, not so much for its heat, as you might expect from a Szechuan pepper.

The berry is quite small, just like the berry of the andaliman, and, like the andaliman, is harvested by hand. This is no easy task, as the trunk and branches of the Zanthoxylum rhetsa have vicious thorns. The berries grow in smaller clusters, which are dismantled to pry the berries loose; when dried, they manifest as 'mini-star anise'. Each berry contains a single 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 ZanthoxylumpeppersAnd thus also for Szechuan pepper, the tingling sensation you experience on the tip of your tongue is caused by a substance in the pepper called sanshool, named after the Japanese sanshō. The spiciness is caused by the amides in the skin of the fruit: α-, β-, γ- and δ-sanshool, α-hydroxy sanshool and β-hydroxy sanshool. γ-sanshool and α-hydroxy sanshool are primarily responsible for the numbing effect. The amount of α-hydroxy sanshool in the berries can reach (well over) 50‰ of the dry weight, while that of γ-sanshool is around 5‰.

The tingling is accompanied by a mild numbing sensation, jokingly compared to tasting a 9-volt battery. A single berry is enough to experience this! This somatosensation, stimulation by touch, has been used for centuries as an anesthetic in traditional Asian medicine. Its mechanism of action is very complex and the subject of extensive studies. Hydroxy-α-sanshol, in particular, is believed to cause the tingling, and there are certain parallels with the sensation of spiciness from capsaicin, the pungent substance in chili peppers, but also with menthol and mustard oil.

Scent and taste

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

• D-limonene (dipentene), sweetish orange flavor, occurring in modest amounts in nutmeg, mace, and cardamom,
• β-phellandrene, pleasant mint and citrus flavor, also found in allspice,
• β-pinene, woody pine scent, as in cumin, pine (pine cone), juniper and hemp,
• sabinene, responsible for the woody, camphor-like flavor of black pepper, among others
• carvotan acetone, likewise minty, as in angelica.
• dihydrocarvol as in black pepper and black tea, and
• the bitter terpinol, - occurring especially in the seeds - as in cranberries.

This pepper is therefore delicious in combination with the aforementioned spices, and in general with products that pair well with citrus, such as shellfish, white fish, White meat, but also other types of meat 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, it is preferred to use the pepper called triphal (Marathi) or triphala (Gujarati) 'pure', that is, not in combination with other spices. Tirphal is used there primarily in fish dishes, just as in Vietnam, where mountain pepper is eaten with grilled fish, grilled or dried meat, and smoked buffalo meat. Sometimes, meat is rubbed with ground mountain pepper (rub) to preserve it.

Explanation

We have sourced this Zanthoxylum pepper from Vietnam for many years and under the name Lai Châu offered, with that the drowned city Lai Châu erend.

Usage

Roast the whole berries. Crush the berries to release the seeds. It is best to use a mortar and pestle for these, while the seed husks are best ground. The same applies to the whole berries (with seeds), provided they are roasted until crisp beforehand. In Vietnam, this mountain pepper is often used as a rub for roasted meat.

Features:

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

Assortment

• available in glass (45 grams), stand-up pouch (various weight classes) and test tube (10 ml)
• larger quantities than shown on request

Save

• batch number BM220214
• best before December 2027 (12-2027)