Green Pepperorns in Brine is a very nifty way to preserve fresh green peppercorns.
I captured in my
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📕 What are Green Peppercorns in brine?
Green Peppercorns in brine are pickled fresh green peppercorns that are preserved in
The green peppercorns are hard and green when freshly harvested, but can't be kept for too long.
After the drupes have been picked, they need to be preserved within 24 hours.
Because green pepper is hard to get, I brine the drupes ASAP.
The fresh green peppercorn spice turn out soft when brined and are used in various dishes thereafter.
One of the most popular and delicious way to enjoy green brined peppercorns is in a creamy steak green pepper sauce.
🌎 Where does Pepper come from?
Green Pepper originated in the Western Ghats in Kerala India and was even known to the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
Peppercorn is the ultimate spice because it's part of most cuisines and even made it as a staple spice in western house holds.
❓ How does it grow?
Peppercorns grow on a woody vine in long drupes.
The vines are usually planted at the base of palm trees such as coconut and areca palms (
That way the vines can grow upwards because they also need shade to grow well.
The plant can take 4 years to produce the first peppercorns and will grow peppercorns for up to 8 years after that.
Sometimes, peppercorn vines are planted next to Coffee shrubs.
It is believed that the end result of the coffee beans will be more aromatic.
This is common practice in Goa, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in India.
🆚 Green vs Black vs White and Pink Peppercorn
What you might not know is that green black and white pepper come from the same plant.
Green Peppercorn is the raw fresh version of a peppercorn.
A peppercorn plant will have those growing on them.
Black Peppercorn is a dried green peppercorn.
The drying process reduces the fruity aroma of a green peppercorn but adds a pungent flavor to the black peppercorn.
White Peppercorns are green peppercorns turned ripe (orange/red) and with the skin removed.
The red berries are soaked in water and the skin is rubbed off.
Pink Peppercorns are from a different plant species alltogether.
They grow on a bush.
There are also Wild Peppercorns growing in the Western Ghats in Goa and Kerala but those have become super rare due to mining and deforestation (the area was protected by the national green tribunal and UNESCO).
I personally have never seen one.
📜 Brief history
In my opinion, it's important that you understand the value of Peppercorns.
At some point when the medieval period shifted to the renaissance, and international spice trade was blooming, people called (in their ignorance) a whole set of spices peppercorns.
The Venetians and Arabs controlled the spice trade with magical deadly dragon stories to hike up the price of the peppercorn spice
This is initially why explorers such as Columbus and Vasco de Gama were commissioned to get into the world.
To get spices!
Columbus most famously came back from West Indies to Spain with what he thought were valuable peppercorns, just to discover that he had brought back, worthless at the time, Chili Peppers.
This is why we keep on confusing the names peppercorns and chili peppers.
They really must have thought that they traveled to India when they crossed the Atlantic and docked in America.
Peppercorn traders were very wealthy men at the time and enjoying peppercorn spiced food was a luxury reserved to the elite.
🛍️ Buying fresh
Getting fresh green peppercorns can be a challenge
Brined green peppercorn can be bought in supermarkets.
I used to buy mine in Aldi until I got some fresh green peppercorns and made my own batch of brined peppercorns.
You can buy green peppercorn drupes in an Asian specialty store.
Ask the store folks if they can arrange some for you.
Or look out for a spice farm in your corner of the world.
Peppercorns grow in humid and tropical areas near the equator.
Florida for example is a good place to grow green peppercorn.
Or during your travels to South Asia, you can try to get green peppercorn and brine them while you are there with vinegar and salt.
That's what I did.
I got my green peppercorns from a spice farm in Goa and brined them.
I would never go back to buy brined green peppercorn.
The quality is better when you make your own.
🥣 Uses & recipes
- Green Peppercorn Sauce for Beef, Pork, Lamb, Salmon. As in this Beef Wellington with Green Pepper cream sauce from Eatlittlebird.com
- Brie Cheese with green peppercorn (my favorite!). If you ever want to attempt to make your own brie cheese.
- Add your brined green peppercorns to infuse pickled spiced jalapeños or fermented vegetables.
- Cured Salami with green peppercorn for those of you who dare to cure meats. Let me know if you succeed! 😀
- Pep up (pun intended) your homemade Dijon Mustard Paste
- Spaghetti with dill and green pepper sauce from Gourmandelle.com
- Peppercorn Crusted Beef Tenderloin from Eatingwell.com
- Just add some of your pickled green
peppercorn to your meals to add flavor. It's quite a versatile ingredient and can be easily used with other ingredients.
Dear Reader, have you seen fresh green peppercorns in your region?
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📖 Recipe
How to make Green Peppercorns in Brine
Ingredients
- 4-6 Green Peppercorn Drupes *see Notes
For the brine:
- ½ cup Water
- 2 Tablespoon Salt
- 3 Tablespoon Vinegar
Instructions
- Rinse your green peppercorns well. I keep mine also in some water with a few drops of vinegar to get rid of insects trapped between the drupes.
- Keep your jar ready an place the green peppercorn drupes into the jar. The more you can fill up the jar the better.
- Prepare the brine by heating up a pot with the water, salt and vinegar. Mix it all well and bring to a quick boil.
- Pour the hot brine over the green peppercorn so that the pepper is covered with the liquid.
- Close the jar with the lid and keep out for two days. Refrigerate after three days and use in your food whenever you like.
Notes
- Peppercorn drupes vary in sizes. The amount I mentioned is just an approximate indication. If you can, fill up your jar with peppercorn drupes.
- If your jar is only half full, that's ok too. You can always add more green peppercorns later to the jar. This might happen if you grow your own green peppercorn drupes.
- You can also add the red ripe peppercorns to your jar if you like. The red ones are great when brined too and preserve for a long time as well.
- Use a Vinegar with 5% acidity. If it’s a stronger vinegar add some more water to even it out and if it’s a lighter vinegar, add more vinegar than water.
- Use only clean sterilized jar to prepare this canned green peppercorn pickle.
I live in north central Victoria. We have huge peppercorn trees here! Some produce a large amount of red berries while some do not fruit at all. I am given to understand that the fruiting ones are of European origin. Can you let me know if these berries can be preserved?
Hi Bryan. The Peppercorn in this post is a creeper and not a tree. In India, you also get Peppercorn bush plants, but they don't grow that high into trees, they stay bushy and have peppercorns on the branches. The one in the pictures, and the one you get in stores to flavor your food, is mainly from India. It grows into a vine, as seen in the image. The ones you talk about is an entirely different plant, and it has nothing to do with the plant in this post.
The peppercorn tree produces pink pepper. It's a different plant, and it's from Southern America originally. Pink Pepper can be dried and used to flavor your food. It's great with chocolate and in desserts. You can also add it to green and black peppercorn to season your meats. I used pink pepper here to make chocolate pink pepper cookies.
What’s the shelf life for brined peppercorns?
10 to 12 months if stored in your fridge.
I’d like to make these, how would dried green peppercorns work? Would they be alright?
I don't think that you can use dried green peppercorns to make this. It just won't be the same. You can try but dried ones taste different and if you pickle them they will not taste the same way as you would expect from preserved and brined green peppercorn.
Sorry to criticise, as your recipe is very informative, but unfortunately there are several types of vinegar and salt,
I’ve come to the conclusion over many years it’s always best to be specific. Kind regards Chris.
Thanks for the question Chris. For the vinegar pick a vinegar that has less than 5% acidity or else add some water to thin it down. I like to use mild vinegar such as rice vinegar or mild distilled white vinegar. It shouldn't be overpowering and the vinegar can be your choice.
For the salt, I tend to use sea salt. Not the brown one but something finer such as fleur de sel or white thin sea salt. Table salt would do the trick too.
Step 5: "Close the jar with the lid and keep out for two days. Refrigerate after three days and use in your food whenever you like." So, should the glass be left out for two or three days? Thanks for the advice and I send greetings from the Czech Republic!
Hi Petr, Yes so what I mean is that after closing the lid you need to keep it in your kitchen counter for 2 days. The 3rd day, place it into the fridge. This is because the flavors need to infuse first but then you also want to preserve it, hence why you need to place it into the fridge after 3 days.
Thank you so much. My father grows peppercorns on the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland Australia and I have gone from dried peppercorns which are sooooo nice to these delicious pickled ones. They are Devine.
Hi Jody, so glad to read that you are enjoying your pickled green peppercorns as much as I do. btw you are so lucky that your father grows peppercorns! That's amazing! 😀
Thank you for this recipe. I have just harvested the motherload of peppercorns after waiting a long time and usually just air dry them to use like normal pepper. This time I have brined them using your recipe and very excited to see how they turn out.
Lovely! I just did the opposite and dried a whole batch to make black pepper for a change. Let us know how yours turned out later on.