Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Sichuan Pepper along with all the Sichuan Pepper containing recipes presented on this site, with 16 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Sichuan Pepper recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Sichuan Pepper as a major wild food ingredient.

Sichuan Pepper (also called Szechuan Pepper, Szechwan pepper, Chinese pepper, Japanese pepper, Aniseed pepper, Sprice pepper, Chinese prickly ash, Fagara, Sansho, Nepal pepper, Indonesian lemon pepper) is the outer pod of the fruit of a number of species in the genus Zanthoxylum (most commonly Zanthoxylum piperitum but also Zanthoxylum simulans, and Zanthoxylum sancho), widely grown and consumed in Asia as a spice. These are not true peppers, as the Zanthoxylum trees are actually members of the Rutaceae (citrus) family.



The spice itself is formed from the pericarp (shell) of the fruit and the seeds are generally omitted (they are bitter in flavour and yield a gritty texture to the ground spice). The dried fruits of sichuan pepper and its relatives have an aromatic odour that, for most species, can be described as lemon-like, with more or less pronounced warm and woodsy overtones. Some of the species have deviating flavour, e.g., Z. alatum (spicy) and Z. avicennae and Z. schinifolium both of which have an anise aroma. It is best to buy the spice whole and then grind yourself. Many commercial preparations, however, have significant stems attached which are woody and best removed by grinding (which can be done either with a pestle and mortar or with a coffee grinder).



It is widely used in the cuisine of Sichuan, China, from which it takes its name, as well as Tibetan, Bhutani, and Japanese cuisines. Ground with nutmeg, black pepper, cinnamon, anise and allspice and mixed with flour it makes a flavoursome coating for fish before frying.