Anise Pepper, Chinese Pepper, Chuan chiao, Chun chiu, Fa chin, Fagara, Hua chiao, Hua jiao, Japan Pepper, Jiao, Kinome, Pepe di anis, Pepe d’anise, Poivre anise, Prickly Ash berry, Sancho, Shun tsin, Suterberry, Szechuan pepper, Szechuan-Pfeffer, Szechwan Pepper, Ta liao, Toothache Tree, Yellow Wood

China

The berries are carminative and anti-spasmodic. The North American prickly ash is known as the ‘Toothache Tree’ because the powdered bark was used as a toothache remedy and to heal wounds. The bark and berries are stimulative and used as a blood purifier and digestive.

Originating from the Szechwan province of China, Szechwan pepper is associated with dishes from that region which feature hotter and spicier cooking than the rest of China. Duck and chicken dishes in particular work well with the spice. Hua jiao yen is a mixture of salt and Szechwan pepper, roasted and browned in a wok and served as a condiment to accompany chicken, duck and pork dishes. Star anise and ginger are often used with it and figures prominently in Szechwan cuisine.

Szechwan pepper is one of the few spices important for Tibetan and Bhutani cookery of the Himalayas, because few spices can be grown there. The national dish of Tibet are momos, a pasta stuffed with yak and flavoured with Szechwan pepper, garlic, ginger and onion. The noodles are steemed and served dry, together with a fiery chile sauce.
In Japan the dried and powdered leaves of the same species of prickly ash is known as sansho and used to make noodle dishes and soups mildly hot and fragrant. The whole leaves, kinome, are used to flavour vegetables, especially bamboo shoots, and to decorate soups. Szechwan pepper is an ingredient in Chinese five-spice powder and shichimi togarashi, a Japanese seven-flavour seasoning.

Szechwan peppercorns are rust coloured with hair-thin stems and open ends. The dried berries resemble tiny beechnuts measuring 4 - 5 mm in diameter. The rough skin splits open to reveal a brittle black seed, about 3 mm in diameter, however the spice mainly consists of the empty husks. In Japan the leaves are used as spice - the ground dried leaves are known as sansho and the whole leaves, kinome, are fresh, vacuum-packed or pickled.
Bouquet: the berries are warm and pepperlike. The leaves have a citrus fragrance.
Flavour: the berries are mildly peppery, woody and acrid. The leaves are milder more citrus.
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