Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Spice guide to Tasmanian Pepper Berries along with all the Tasmanian Pepper Berries containing recipes presented on this site, with 2 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 Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain as a major flavouring.

Tasmanian Pepper Berries (also known as Mountain Pepper, Mountain Pepperberry and Native Pepper) are the dried fruit of the shrub, Tasmannia lanceolata which is part of the Winteraceae, a small family of shrubs from South East Asia and the Pacific Rim. The plant itself is mainly found on the Tasmanian Island, Australia; though it on the mainland in Victoria and New South Wales. Mountain pepper shrubs are distinguished by the attractive deep red of their young stems and branches. In ideal conditions, mountain pepper will grow to 5m tall. The broad-based, tapering leaves on mountain pepper are longer on plants growing in lowland areas, (up to 13cm), and much shorter on alpine dwelling ones that may have leaves only 1.5cm in length.

The flowers are small, yellow to cream coloured and when fertilized (typically in March and May) these develop into berries that are dark blue to black in colour. These are hand-picked and dried to produce pepperberries, wich are black in colour and are a succulent hot berry with a crunchy seed cluster at their heart. When eaten alone, the berries have a sweet taste at the beginning, followed by short-lasting intense heat. The berries then deliver a strange sensation of numbness, similar to Szechwan peppercorns. The leaves, fruit and even the fresh flower buds all have a distinct mountain pepper aroma and taste, albeit at varying intensities.

In terms of sensory quality, Tasmanian pepperberries start off tasting slightly sweet, which quickly gives way to an intense, but short-lived pungency that then yields a sensation of numbness (in a similar manner to Sichuan pepper and water pepper). The leaves (either fresh or dried) also share this quality of pungency and numbness). The pungency of the berries is due to the presence of polygodial.

In Australia they are used as part of the growing trend for bush food where pepperberries are used to season emu burgers or kangaroo steaks. The berries are also crushed and mixed in vegetable oil before being used to marinate meat. In addition, the berries are used in flavoured breads, pastas and patés, mustards and cheeses. In stews or sauces the pepperberries impart a vibrant red colour which can be very attractive.

Though largely known only in Australia Tasmanian Pepperberry is becoming available through a small number of on-line spice suppliers. Please note that if you are interested in using this spice for your own cooking, then employ a light hand as they are ten times as hot as ordinary black pepper!

The berries are high in antioxidants, but a limitation to the use of wild pepperberry is the presence of safrole, a weak hepatocarcinogen (liver toxin); though safrole undergoes multiple pathways of breakdown and some of the breakdown products may be more toxic. Safrole-free strains of Tasmannia lanceolata have been selected for the spice trade.

The closely related Tasmannia stipitata, Dorrigo Pepper, is also sold as a spice and was the original pepperbush used in specialty native food restaurants in the 1980s. Dorrigo pepper is safrole free and has a strong peppery flavour.