Food Alphabet
African pepper (Guinea pepper, Ashangian pepper, West African pepper, lecluse pepper, pimentoda rabo)
The homeland of African pepper is considered to be Liberia (Pepper Coast), and it is grown, in addition to Liberia, in Central Africa, Ghana, Guinea, and also Bissau (Portuguese Guinea).
In dry form, African pepper is an elliptical grain of gray color with a brownish tinge. The aroma of this pepper is very strong, stuffy-spicy, and it tastes like kubeba, only less burning (medium-hot) (see the article "Kubeba Pepper"). In the 14th century in Europe, in England and Portugal, it served as a popular substitute for black pepper. Today, it is used only in African cuisine.
African pepper is an expensive spice, so they use it sparingly: they take a few grains and pound them in a mortar together with black pepper, and then season traditional thick chowder, boiled rice, as well as meat, vegetable and flour dishes.
In Nigeria, the leaves of this pepper are used as a seasoning.
