Jews started using hens as the main course at Passover around the first century, often flavored with garlic, cubeb (similar to allspice), turmeric and dried lime.
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Sipsmiths has won awards for its London Dry Gin, while the East London Liquor Company is equally interested in (quality) old methods of distillation, infusing its gin with grapefruit peel, cardamon, and cubeb berries, among many other botanicals.
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In the end, my list was short and solid: blood orange, Spanish lemon (not to be confused with Egyptian lemon, which was less smoky), rosemary—a warhorse of the gin trade, and none the worse for that—and cubeb pepper.
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Cubeb came to Europe via India through the trade with the Arabs. The name cubeb comes from Arabic ' () by way of Old French quibibes. Cubeb is mentioned in alchemical writings by its Arabic name. In his Theatrum Botanicum, John Parkinson tells that the king of Portugal prohibited the sale of cubeb to promote black pepper (Piper nigrum) around 1640.
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Piper guineense is a West African species of Piper; the spice derived from its dried fruit is known as Ashanti pepper, Benin pepper, Edo pepper, false cubeb, Guinea cubeb, and called locally kale, kukauabe, masoro, etiñkeni, sasema, soro wisa, eyendo, oziza and uziza. It is a close relative of cubeb pepper and a relative of black pepper and long pepper. Unlike cubeb, which is large and spherical in shape, Ashanti pepper grains are prolate spheroids, smaller and smoother than Cubeb pepper in appearance and generally bear a reddish tinge. The stalks of Ashanti pepper berries are also distinctly curved whilst those of cubeb pepper are completely straight.
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John Varvatos Vintage uses cubeb as one of the ingredients for fragrance. Cubeb is sometimes used to adulterate the essential oil of patchouli, which requires caution for patchouli users. In turn, cubeb is adulterated by Piper baccatum (also known as the "climbing pepper of Java") and Piper caninum.
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A Victorian advertisement for Dr. Perrin's Medicated Cubeb Cigarettes Cubeb was frequently used in the form of cigarettes for asthma, chronic pharyngitis, and hay fever. Edgar Rice Burroughs, being fond of smoking cubeb cigarettes, humorously stated that if he had not smoked so many cubebs, there might never have been Tarzan. Marshall's Prepared Cubeb Cigarettes was a popular brand, with enough sales to still be made during World War II.. In 2000, cubeb oil was included in the list of ingredients found in cigarettes, published by the Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch of North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services. Bombay Sapphire gin is flavored with botanicals including cubeb and grains of paradise.
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Cubeb reached Africa by way of the Arabs. In Moroccan cuisine, cubeb is used in savory dishes and in pastries like markouts, little diamonds of semolina with honey and dates. It also appears occasionally in the list of ingredients for the famed spice mixture Ras el hanout. In Indonesian cuisine, especially in Indonesian gulés (curries), cubeb is frequently used.
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Boyle the sewe byfore, and messe hit forth." As an aromatic confectionery, cubeb was often candied and eaten whole. Candied cubeb is mentioned in Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, set in the 1940s: "Under its tamarind glaze, the Mills bomb turns out to be luscious pepsin-flavored nougat, chock-full of tangy candied cubeb berries, and a chewy camphor-gum center. It is unspeakably awful.
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Arab herbalists of the Middle Ages were usually versed in alchemy, and cubeb was used, under the name kababa, when preparing the water of al butm . The modern use of cubeb in England was in treating gonorrhea, where its antiseptic action was of much value . William Wyatt Squire wrote in 1908 that cubeb berries "act specifically on the genitourinary mucous membrane. (They are) given in all stages of gonorrhea" .
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Cubeb was introduced to Arabic cuisine around the 10th century. The Travels of Marco Polo, written in late 13th century, describes Java as a producer of cubeb, along with other valuable spices. In the 14th century, cubeb was imported into Europe from the Grain Coast, under the name of pepper, by merchants of Rouen and Lippe. A 14th-century morality tale exemplifying gluttony by the Franciscan writer Francesc Eiximenis describes the eating habits of a worldly cleric who consumes a bizarre concoction of egg yolks with cinnamon and cubeb after his baths, probably as an aphrodisiac.
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The National Botanic Pharmacopoeia printed in 1921 stated that cubeb was "an excellent remedy for flour albus or whites" .
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Piper cubeba, cubeb or tailed pepper is a plant in genus Piper, cultivated for its fruit and essential oil. It is mostly grown in Java and Sumatra, hence sometimes called Java pepper. The fruits are gathered before they are ripe, and carefully dried. Commercial cubeb consists of the dried berries, similar in appearance to black pepper, but with stalks attached - the "tails" in "tailed pepper".
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It is a pale green viscous liquid with a warm woody, slightly camphoraceous odor. After rectification with water, or on keeping, this deposits rhombic crystals of camphor of cubeb. Cubebin (C20H20O6) is a crystalline substance existing in cubeb, discovered by Eugène Soubeiran and Hyacinthe Capitaine in 1839. It may be prepared from cubebene, or from the pulp left after the distillation of the oil.
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Piper cubeba, from Köhler's Medicinal Plants (1887) In the fourth century BC, Theophrastus mentioned komakon, including it with cinnamon and cassia as an ingredient in aromatic confections. Guillaume Budé and Claudius Salmasius have identified komakon with cubeb, probably due to the resemblance which the word bears to the Javanese name of cubeb, kumukus. This is seen as a curious evidence of Greek trade with Java in a time earlier than that of Theophrastus. Chapter XXV.
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Li Hsun thought it grew on the same tree as black pepper. Tang physicians administered it to restore appetite, cure "demon vapors", darken the hair, and perfume the body. However, there is no evidence showing that cubeb was used as a condiment in China. The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, compiled in the 9th century, mentions cubeb as a remedy for infertility, showing it was already used by Arabs for medicinal purposes.
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Cubebol is a natural sesquiterpene alcohol first identified in cubeb oil. It is also found in basil. It was patented as a cooling agent in 2001 by Firmenich, an international flavor company. The taste of cubebol is cooling and refreshing.
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The brand was launched in 1987, but its maker claims that it is based on a secret recipe dating to 1761. Pertsovka, a dark brown Russian pepper vodka with a burning taste, is prepared from infusion of cubeb and capsicum peppers.
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It is unlikely Greeks acquired them from somewhere else, since Javanese growers protected their monopoly of the trade by sterilizing the berries by scalding, ensuring that the vines were unable to be cultivated elsewhere. In the Tang Dynasty, cubeb was brought to China from Srivijaya. In India, the spice came to be called kabab chini, that is, "Chinese cubeb", possibly because the Chinese had a hand in its trade, but more likely because it was an important item in the trade with China. In China this pepper was called both vilenga, and vidanga, the cognate Sanskrit word.
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Chemical structure of α-cubebene The dried cubeb berries contain essential oil comprising monoterpenes (sabinene 50%, α-thujene, and carene) and sesquiterpenes (caryophyllene, copaene, α- and β-cubebene, δ-cadinene, germacrene), the oxides 1,4- and 1,8-cineole and the alcohol cubebol. About 15% of a volatile oil is obtained by distilling cubeb with water. Cubebene, the liquid portion, has the formula C15H24 and comes in two forms, α- and β-. They differ only in the position of the alkene moiety, with the double-bond being endocyclic (part of the five- membered ring) in α-cubebene, as shown, but exocyclic in β-cubebene.
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In the Amazon Rainforest, many of the native tribes use matico leaves as an antiseptic. In Peru, it was used for stopping hemorrhages and treating ulcers, and in European practice in the treatment of diseases of the genitals and urinary organs, such as those for which cubeb was often prescribed.
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Due to the wide distribution of Piper, the fruit of other species are also important spices, many of them internationally. Long pepper (P. longum), is possibly the second-most popular Piper spice internationally; it has a rather chili-like "heat" and the whole inflorescence is used as the fruits are tiny. Cubeb (P.
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The dried pericarp is wrinkled, and its color ranges from grayish brown to black. The seed is hard, white and oily. The odor of cubeb is described as agreeable and aromatic and the taste as pungent, acrid, slightly bitter and persistent. It has been described as tasting like allspice, or like a cross between allspice and black pepper.
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The cubeb pepper (Piper cubeba) are native to Island Southeast Asia. Like Piper retrofractum, however, it was only cultivated extensively in the Greater Sunda Islands for the spice trade. The Javanese protected the monopoly of the trade by sterilizing the seeds before trading them. It has a pungent smell, often compared to allspice, quite unlike that of the other culinary peppers.
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Kava club in Tonga Cubeb (P. cubeba) has been used in folk medicine and herbalism as well as, particularly in the early 20th century, as a cigarette flavoring. P. darienense is used medically by the Kuna people of the Panama-Colombia border region, and elsewhere it is used to intoxicate fish which then can be easily caught. Spiked pepper, often called matico appears to have strong disinfectant and antibiotic properties.
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The spice can also be substituted in any recipe calling for cubeb pepper, where Ashanti imparts a less bitter flavour. The pepper is also sometimes one of the ingredients in the Berbere spice mix used in the cuisines of Ethiopia and of Eritrea. However, West African Pepper is a highly esteemed spice in its region of origin and may be hard to get abroad; thus, long pepper is more often used in Berbere.
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Bisabolenes are a group of closely related natural chemical compounds which are classified as sesquiterpenes. Bisabolenes are produced from farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) and are present in the essential oils of bisabol, and of a wide variety of other plants including cubeb, lemon, and oregano. Various derivates also function as pheromones in different insects, such as stink bugs and fruit flies. Bisabolenes are produced by several fungi, though their biological role in that group of organisms remains unclear.
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Peppers (Piper) ancestrally cultivated by Austronesians include the betel (Piper betle), cubeb pepper (Piper cubeba), kava (Piper methysticum), and the Javanese long pepper (Piper retrofractum). Many others were also harvested from the wild for medicinal or religious purposes, including Piper caducibracteum, Piper excelsum, Piper ornatum, and Piper sarmentosum. Black pepper (Piper nigrum) and long pepper (Piper longum) were also extensively cultivated in Island Southeast Asia after early contact by Austronesian traders with South India and Sri Lanka.
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He also mentioned that in this island was found a lot of clove, cubeb, nutmeg and many other spices. He mentioned that the King of Java had an impressive, grand, and luxurious palace. The stairs and palace interior were coated with gold and silver, and even the roofs were gilded. He also recorded that the kings of the Mongol had repeatedly tried to attack Java, but always ended up in failure and managed to be sent back to the mainland.
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For the most part, Islam overlaid and mixed with existing cultural and religious influences. Europeans such as the Portuguese arrived in Indonesia from the 16th century seeking to monopolise the sources of valuable nutmeg, cloves, and cubeb pepper in Maluku. In 1602 the Dutch established the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and became the dominant European power by 1610. Following bankruptcy, the VOC was formally dissolved in 1800, and the government of the Netherlands established the Dutch East Indies under government control.
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Born in Ameno, Italy, he studied in Pavia and entered the Franciscan Order in 1647. He taught philosophy and theology to students in Pavia, some of them having been attracted to the area by his fame. Sinistrari was an advisor to the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition in Rome. He was considered an expert on exorcism and wrote of the effects (during exorcisms) of various plants and other substancesDe Daemonialitate et Incubis et Succubis by Ludivico Sinistrari (manuscript 1680, printed 1875, reprinted 2003, 2009) including cubeb, cardamom, ginger and nutmeg.
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Arguably the most important of these later works is the Compendium of Materia Medica (Bencao Gangmu:) compiled during the Ming dynasty by Li Shizhen, which is still used today for consultation and reference. The use of Chinese herbs was popular during the medieval age in western Asian and Islamic countries. They were traded through the Silk Road from the East to the West. Cinnamon, ginger, rhubarb, nutmeg and cubeb are mentioned as Chinese herbs by medieval Islamic medical scholars Such as Rhazes (854– 925 CE), Haly Abbas (930-994 CE) and Avicenna (980-1037 CE).
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They contain large amounts of beta- caryophyllene, which is being investigated as an anti-inflammatory agent. It also contains significant proportions (up to around 10%) of myristicin, elemicin, safrole, and dillapiol, as well as some apiole (around 1.4%). In terms of flavour, Ashanti pepper is very similar to cubeb pepper but is less bitter and has a fresher, more herbaceous flavour and aroma than cubeb's more pine-like scent. Though known in Europe during the Middle Ages (it was a common spice in Rouen and Dieppe in 14th-century France), these days, its use is largely marginalized to West and Central Africa.
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The flavouring of the drink comes from a recipe of ten ingredients: almond, lemon peel, liquorice, juniper berries, orris root, angelica, coriander, cassia, cubeb, and grains of paradise. Alcohol brought in from another supplier is evaporated three times using a carterhead still, and the alcohol vapours are passed through a mesh/basket containing the ten botanicals, in order to gain flavour and aroma. This is felt to give the gin a lighter, more floral taste compared to those gins that are created using a copper pot still. Water from Lake Vyrnwy is added to bring the strength of Bombay Sapphire down to 40.0% (UK, the Nordics, several continental European markets, Canada and Australia).
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As a spice, the whole fruit (pod) is used, as the hull of the fruit lends an aromatic note (with the taste being described as an admixture of cubeb pepper and nutmeg with overtones of resin) whilst the seeds lend pungency (they are also quite bitter). Typically the dried fruit is lightly crushed before being tied in a bouquet garni and added to West African soups (stews). In Senegal, the spice is often sold smoked in markets as (French for 'Senegal pepper'); the whole green fruit is smoked, giving the spice a sticky consistency, and when pounded in a pestle and mortar it makes a spice paste. These, however, tend to be the larger pods of the related species Xylopia striata.
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The National Museum of Indonesia has one of the best and the most complete collections of Chinese ceramics discovered outside of China, dated from the Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, spanning for almost two millennia. This particular collection provides a good insight into Indonesia's maritime trade over the centuries. Research indicates that the Chinese sailed to India via Indonesia as early as Western Han period (205 BC to 220 AD) as a part of the maritime silk road and firm trade relations were subsequently established. Traditionally, the Indonesian archipelago, identified by ancient Chinese geographer as Nanyang, was the source of spices such as cloves, cubeb, and nutmeg, raw materials such as sandalwood, gold and tin, as well as exotic rare items such as ivory, rhino horn, tiger fur and bone, exotic birds and colorful feathers.
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The economy of most of villages and polities in the archipelago initially relied heavily on rice agriculture, as well as the trading of forests products such as tropical fruits, hunted animals, plant resins, rattan and hardwood. Ancient kingdoms such as the Tarumanagara and Mataram were dependent on rice yields and tax. For a long time, the archipelago was known for its abundance of natural resources. Spices such as nutmeg and cloves from Maluku Islands, pepper and cubeb from southern Sumatra and western Java, rice from Java, gold, copper and tin from Sumatra, Borneo and the islands in between, camphor resin from port of Barus, sappan and sandalwood from the Lesser Sunda Islands, hardwoods from Borneo, ivory and rhino's horn from Sumatra and exotic bird feathers from the Western New Guinea are among a few products sought by traders worldwide.
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The port of Srivijaya served as an important entrepôt in which valuable commodities from the region and beyond are collected, traded and shipped. Rice, cotton, indigo and silver from Java; aloes, resin, camphor, ivory and rhino's tusks, tin and gold from Sumatra and Malay Peninsula; rattan, rare timber, camphor, gems and precious stones from Borneo; exotic birds and rare animals, iron, sappan, sandalwood and rare spices including clove and nutmeg from Eastern Indonesian archipelago; various spices of Southeast Asia and India including pepper, cubeb and cinnamon; also Chinese ceramics, lacquerware, brocade, fabrics, silks and Chinese artworks are among valuable commodities being traded in Srivijayan port. What goods were actually native to Srivijaya is currently being disputed due to the volume of cargo that regularly passed through the region from India, China, and Arabia. Foreign traders stopped to trade their cargo in Srivijaya with other merchants from Southeast Asia and beyond.
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