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SpiceLines
Chilling Out
“Scientists have combined a normally inactive lidocaine derivative with capsaicin, the ‘heat’-generating ingredient in chili peppers, to produce pain-specific local anesthesia. When injected into rats, this combination completely blocked pain without interfering with either motor function or sensitivity to non-painful stimuli” (Harvard Medical School Press Release, October 3, 2007). “The new work builds on research done since the 1970’ showing how electrical signaling in the nervous system depends on the properties of ion channels, that is, proteins that make pores in the membranes of neurons.” “The team must overcome several hurdles before this method can be applied to humans. They must figure out how to open the TRPV1 channels without producing even a transient burning pain before QX-314 enters and blocks the neurons, and they must tinker with the formulation to prolong the effects of the drugs. Both Bean and Woolf are confident they’ll succeed.” Also see Nature, October 4, 2007, “Inhibition of nociceptors by TRPV1-mediated entry of impermeant sodium channel blockers.” (2/27/08)
Chilies
Fight Cancer
“Capsaicin, the chemical that makes chile peppers hot, may have the power to
destroy cancer cells” (The Week, April 7, 2006, p. 20). Cedar-Sinai
in California has discovered that it shrinks prostate tumors in mice 80%,
and, in lab tests, the spice killed 75 percent of human cancer cells. See
“Capsaicin, a component of red peppers, inhibits the growth of
androgen-independent, p53 mutant prostate cancer cells.” See
PubMed. (10/11/06)
French Lavender
You can read
much about the growing interest in lavender at our sister site
www.spicelines.com. But certainly this is a matter of even more
passionate interest in France than America. “Along an official ‘Lavender
Route,’ organized tours lead visitors through perfumed purple-blue fields,
distilleries, museums, restaurants, art galleries and, of cours, gift shops”
(“In Provence, Commerce’s Scent is Tinged with Lavender,” New York Times,
July 21, 2006, p. A4). Lavender, in France anyway, is said to disinfect the
air, help psychiatric patients, clean wounds, help insominia, and drive away
flies and mosquitoes. “France now accounts for only 50 percent of the
world’s production of fine lavender, although 90 percent of its lavendin.”
Lavendin is “a sterile, hardier and much more prolific hybrid with a cruder,
industrial, camphor scent.” (8/16/06)
Going-Away Spices
Richmond Hill Inn, a very classy inn on the outskirts of Asheville,
North Carolina, puts a little present outside your door in the morning,
dazzling you with the wonders of nature instead of all the cares of man you
would find in any newspaper. There you will find a small sampling of an
herb or spice, along with a card, telling you of its history and many uses.
Our party found lavender on one day, rosemary on another. Simultaneously
this reminds you that this inn has an ambitious kitchen, absolutely smashing
gardens (its best feature), and active tilling that provides plants to
delight both the eye and palate. For more on Richmond Hill, see
“Gabrielle’s Place—Asheville, North Carolina.” (7/5/06)
Wasabi—The Real Thing
“Most
sushi restaurants, both in the U.S. and Japan, do not serve the genuine
article. The green stuff next to your spicy tuna roll is usually a
combination of horseradish, mustard extract, and food coloring. Genuine
wasabi is expensive (the plants are hard to cultivate) and tastes sweeter,
with less concentrated heat” (FSB, January 2006, p. 118). Doug
Lambrecht’s
Real Wasabi in Hilton Head, S.C., imports wasabi plants from Asia, makes
them into powder that it sells online. (Please note: website was down at
time of posting.) He is trying now to grow a little on his farm near
Cashiers, North Carolina.
Pacific Farms in Florence, Oregon has grown and sold wasabi since 1997.
(6/7/06)
America’s Favorite Spice: Cinnamon (or is it Cassia)?
A few weeks ago, hastening through the San Antonio airport, our heads
swiveled as we passed a Cinnabon shop. Our nostrils quivered as the all too
familiar, sweet, syrupy, cinnamon fragrance wafted enticingly towards us, as
it does in airports and malls across the country.
Later, as we climbed through blue skies to cruising
altitude, it occurred to us that cinnamon is practically our national
spice—as American as apple pie, a dessert, which not coincidentally, is
often made with generous sprinklings of cinnamon, nutmeg and other sweet
spices. We crave cinnamon in homestyle baked apples, oozing with butter and
brown sugar. It makes mass market breakfast foods (think Pop Tarts or Apple
Cinnamon Cheerios) more alluring. It’s one of the secret ingredients in
Coca-Cola, surely the quintessential American soft drink. Even our much
maligned domestic diva loves cinnamon: During her five-month stay at Camp
Cupcake (a.k.a. Alderson), Martha Stewart was reportedly snared by prison
guards with pilfered brown sugar, butter and cinnamon stashed in her
lingerie. Perhaps a midnight dessert was in the offing.
What few Americans know is that the spice most of us
call cinnamon is actually a near cousin, cassia. Both spices come from the
peeled bark of tropical evergreen trees in the Lauraceae, or laurel family.
Both are native to Asia. Both are sweet spices, imbued with an aromatic oil
that trumpets “cinnamon!” to our smell and taste receptors. But here their
paths diverge.
Cassia bark is reddish-brown in color, and when
stripped from the tree, forms a hard scroll-like “quill”—or stick—which
breaks with snap. Its fragrance is pungent, its flavor sweet and hot with a
rough, astringent edge. It is an assertive spice that enhances the flavor
of baked apples, cinnamon toast, rice pudding and any other dessert in which
a distinct cinnamon taste is desired. Yet cassia also lends unusual depth
to savory dishes, such as Moroccan lamb shanks braised with onions or to
bstilla, the classic Moroccan pigeon pie made with almonds and a touch of
sugar.
Over half the world’s cassia comes from Indonesia. The
best—or, at least, the smoothest—cassia is grown on the government-protected
slopes of Mount Korintje on the island of Sumatra. Chinese cassia is
spicier and has a distinctively peppery bite. It is an essential ingredient
of Chinese five-spice powder and is used in the red-cooked or red-braised
dishes of Hunan province. Vietnamese cassia, also known as Saigon Cinnamon,
is so hot and aromatic that some purveyors recommend using half the amount
specified in recipes. In Vietnam, cassia sticks are used to flavor pho, a
delectable slow-simmered broth of various meats served with mint, basil,
lime and lashings of fiery siracha or red pepper sauce.
True cinnamon, also known as Ceylon cinnamon, grows
principally on the island of Sri Lanka. (Most farms are far enough
inland to have escaped the tsunami of 2004.) Pale golden brown in
color, it is sold in “quills” made of concentric layers of paper thin bark.
Unlike cassia, true cinnamon is shaggy and tends to shred when broken.
Its aroma is complex: sweet, warm, and woody with whispers of clove and
citrus. If you chew a bit of the bark, the flavor unfolds like a
flower. First the mouth puckers, with a tight, mildly astringent sensation,
then the palate is suffused with warmth and a well of sweetness blossoms.
Only then does the flavor of cinnamon, with faint woodsy undertones, emerge.
At the end, there is a little bite, a fleeting pungency.
When true cinnamon is used in cooking, all these
nuances infuse the dish. It is particularly good for baking delicate
pastries—in fact, the British prefer it—but it is also used traditionally in
Mexican cooking, where it performs a balancing act with fiery chiles in
complex dishes such as the moles of Oaxaca.
One way to sample the
differences between cinnamon and cassia is to order the lot from Penzeys.
This Midwestern spice merchant carries fresh grade A Korintje, Chinese and
Vietnamese cassia, as well as true Ceylon cinnamon. Contact: Penzey’s
Spices, 19300 Janacek Court, P.O. Box 924, Brookfield, Wisconsin
53008-0924. Telephone: 800.741.7787. Fax: 262.785.7678. Website: www.penzeys.com.
(4/20/05)
Worldwide
Gourmet
We actually
got started on this site (www.theworldwidegourmet.com/spices/index.
htm) because of the spice sections, which do include a few recipes we
did not know for some of the spices with which we are experimenting. But
there’s a lot more here, too, including uses and other tips on a multitude
of recipe ingredients, a tour of the cuisine of several countries, some top
interesting restaurants at several ports of call, information on some top
restaurants around the globe and their chefs, etc. See
www.theworldwidegourmet.com.
(3/30/05)
Spice Advice: Wisdom from Chef Cardoz in Fine Cooking
Those who are new to spices—or to Indian ways of using them in the
kitchen—may wish to pick up a copy of the March 2005 issue of Fine
Cooking. In “Spice Up Your Cooking” (pp. 56-61), chef Floyd Cardoz
recommends a “layered” approach to building a spice pantry. Step one:
Begin with familiar spices, such as black peppercorns, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Step two: Add “versatile” spices, such as cumin, coriander and cardamom.
Step three: “Venture off the beaten path” with nigella seeds, fenugreek and
other unusual spices.
Cardoz, who cooks at Tabla, one of New York’s top
Indian fusion restaurants, does not reveal the secret of his addictive
crabcakes. (Perhaps he is saving it for his forthcoming cookbook.) But he
does offer a recipe for Peppery Pink Lentil Soup which calls for two
techniques that transform the taste of whole spices. Toasting peppercorns
and coriander seeds in a dry pan conjures up smoky, almost citrus-like
flavors, while sizzling cumin and mustard seeds in hot oil creates a vibrant
tarka or garnish that adds zest to the pureed soup.
We recently
had the pleasure of interviewing Floyd Cardoz about his early years in
Mumbai and his love for spices, in particular black pepper. To see the
interview or his recipe for Black Pepper Shrimp, Watermelon and Lime Salad,
please visit
SpiceLines. (3/23/05)
Spice and Life
A somewhat
neglected older study, ”Antimicrobial Functions of Spices: Why Some Like It
Hot,” by Jennifer Billing and Paul W. Sherman from Cornell in the March 1998
issue of the Quarterly Review of Biology documents the importance of
spices, particularly in hot climates, for controlling food diseases, long
serving as preservatives and bug killers particularly before refrigeration
came along. Billings did most of the hard slog work, looking at 4,570
recipes from 93 cookbooks for the cuisine of 36 countries. “Garlic, onion,
allspice and oregano … were found to be the most all-around bacteria
killers,” according to a Cornell press release about their work. See The
Economist, “Antibiotic Spices,” May 19, 1998. To get a list of top 30
spices with Microbe Fighting Ability ranked by effective, see the fairly
detailed Cornell Release at
www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March98/spice.hrs.html. Dr. Andrew Weil,
incidentally, theorizes that tumeric may offer some help against Alzheimer’s
and other diseases, noting that India where it is widely used enjoys lower
rates of the disease than other major nations, suggesting that spices with a
low ranking as a germicide may be terribly important in other regards.
Street Food in Asia
Just recently
Amanda Hesser took a trip to seven countries along the Pacific Rim, which is
summed up in “The Spice Route,” New York Times Style Magazine,
November 7, 2004, pp. 154-159. Here, as she says, she skirted restaurants
and visited with “the street vendors who shine, defining the tastes of the
culture and providing an immediate sense of place.” In any event, she was
visiting many of the very countries from which we derive our best spices.
She touched down in Myramar, India’s Calcutta, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, etc.
Essentially this is a montage of stunning pictures and provocative
recipes. We have taken to the “shrimp chao.” As she says, “Much of the
street food in Southeast Asia includes rice in one fashion or another. Chao,
pronounced jaow, found in Vietnam, is a savory porridge made essentially of
rice,” and she picked up this version in Central Vietnam’s Hue. She makes
much of the cilantro, but there’s plenty of green chili, lotus seeds, and
coarse black pepper to excite the palate. Nonetheless, you have to work on
her recipe a bit to make the dish come together. Combine Hesser with a read
of Johnny (R.W.) Apple’s articles in the Times about his trips to
India and Thailand where you learn more about the food, the mood of the
country, and the ingredients. Now well into his second career as a bon
vivant, he brings more panache to this role than he did to political
writing.
More than Spice
Peruvian food has been nourished by the country’s huge biodiversity, namely
its “dozens of microclimates. Potatoes, squash, peanuts, hot peppers, beans
and maize were all grown before the Spaniards.” At the market one can
choose between “60 different varies of fresh fruit and vegetables and 70
different species of seafood.” Cultural diversity has also made a mark on
the food.
“In such a
poor country, food has traditionally been robust, spicy but lacking in
sophistication.” Now, with 14 cooking schools in Lima and a dozen upmarket
restaurants, style is being added to the rich mix of ingredients. And
Peruvian chefs are migrating into Chile, Colombia, and the United States.
See The Economist, January 31, 2004, p. 35. For a bit more on
Peruvian food, see
www.hut.fi/
~czevallo/EnglishCourse/PeruvianFood.html.
Top of the Shop:
Best Spice Merchant—Paris
The regal sounding GoumanyaT et Son Royaume is located on a plebian
street in the Quartier du Temple near the Place de la Republique. But there
is nothing ordinary about this elegant spice shop, part tiny boutique and
part inter-active museum. There is, for example, the large glass apothecary
jar filled with the most richly fragrant red gold threads of saffron we have
ever encountered. There is “le sniffing bar,” where one can poke one’s nose
into jars of blade mace, star anise, cloves and juniper berries, inhaling
aromas so vibrant and complex that grocery store counterparts seem but pale
ghosts. There is the fact that Alain Ducasse, Pierre Gagnaire, Joel Robuchon
and other Michelin-starred chefs come here to buy true pink peppercorns from
Pondicherry and other rare spices.
GoumanyaT is a gentle conceit, a princely figurehead invented by David
Thiercelin, a sixth-generation spice merchant whose family business was
founded in Pithiviers in 1809. For decades the family was a leading exporter
of saffron; today, the business has expanded to include 180 spices, as well
as other “natural products from the vegetable kingdom.” The catalogue verges
on the poetic, offering les partums du ciel (flowers, jams, honey,
vanilla); les secrets du feu (saffron, pepper, whole spices), les
saveurs de la terre (mushrooms, herbs, grains, oils) and les couleurs
de l'eau (sea salt, sea weed, caviar). We took home a small sampling,
including very fresh, fragrant Szechuan pepper, orange blades of sultry
mace, and black peppercorns from Kerala, less robust than some, but with a
controlled burn that we imagine would suit French chefs perfectly. We also
brought back a coolly aromatic spice mixture, Melange Al-andalusi, which
includes coriander and caraway, as well as cubebs and long pepper, two
exotic peppers widely used in medieval cookery; they are ideal for rubbing
on a pork tenderloin, marinated in a little red wine and olive oil, and then
grilled.
The genial M. Thiercelin, when he is not chatting with a chef who has just
purchased a king’s ransom of black truffles, is a fount of spice
information. Almost all saffron, he told us, now comes from Iran, since so
little is produced in Spain and Kashmir has so many problems. Why is good
quality vanilla so costly? Three years of bad weather and political and
economic strife in Madagascar. And why are his spices so much better than
others? “We are very strict with our suppliers. If they deliver something
that is not up to our expectation, we don’t accept it. They know our rule.”
Contact: GoumanyaT et son Royaume, 3 Rue Dupuis, 75003 Paris. Telephone:
01 44 78 96 74. Fax: 01 44 78 96 75. Website:
www.goumanyat.com.
Culinary Castration
Now very much a writer about cuisine, Wolfram Siebeck was a culture critic
before he decided to singlehandedly bring German food out of the Dark Ages.
He attributes the history of mediocrity in German eating to the Thirty Years
War in 16l8 and the succession of wars and disasters since. There has never
been enough settled, peaceful times to allow the forces of culture and
civilization to lead to gustatory refinement.
“People
prefer their food to be mild,” he says. “That’s something that gets me on
the barricades because mildness in food—it’s a castration.” See New York
Times, “Taking the Oxymoron out of ‘German Cuisine,’” November 1, 2003,
p. A4.
All About
Sea Salt
Ms. Marlene Parrish of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette authored an
excellent sea salt primer called “Sea Salt Adds Wave of Extra Zip and
Crunch” at
www.post-gazette.com/food/20030828salttasting0828fnp3.asp. Her husband
is Robert L. Wolke, author of
What Einstein Told His Cook, who provided her with background on the
differences between land-mined and sea salt. Kosher salt, for instance,
seems best used in sauces, while the different sea salts do best as
toppings. She then goes on to provide a rundown on some of the finer sea
salts—Fleur de sel, Naruma Sea Salt, Peruvian Pink Sea Salt, Australian
Murray River Salt Flakes, Hawaiian Black Lava Salt, Hawaiian Red Aloe Salt,
South African Sea Salt, Mexican Benequenes, and Maldon Sea Salt.
Most Exotic Peppermill
One glimpse of the Atlas Peppermill set us to dreaming of the wine-dark
Aegean sea and plates of peppery octopus consumed with glasses of ice-cold
ouzo at a harbor restaurant in the Greek town of Nauplion. It was here that
we spent a blissful summer photographing shards from an archeological dig,
learning to pluck sea urchins from the rocks in the bay and devour them
without impaling ourselves on prickly spines, even discovering the archaic
power of Medea performed in its orignal language. At noon, the
streets of Nauplion were hot and deserted, but the fragrance of freshly
baked bread hinted at meals eaten within tightly shuttered houses. At
night, the whole town turned out to watch the sunset and eat fish at the
string of open air cafes that lined the harbor.
But back to the Atlas: This sturdy peppermill, which
is made in Greece, is based on the design of a coffeemill created hundreds
of years ago for soldiers in the field. There are many colors and styles to
choose from, but we are partial to the 404 model which resembles a narrow
copper tower topped with a rounded cupola and a brass handle for grinding;
bands of embossed grape clusters and leaves encircle the body of the mill,
adding to its exotic allure. The Atlas is easily filled by unscrewing the
handle and removing the cap; our model holds an ample half-cup of whole
peppercorns. The grind is adjusted by loosening or tightening a screw on
the bottom; within, a heavy steel mechanism with hand-cut burrs efficiently
pulverizes the pepper. Our only quibble is that the mill is heavy, weighing
in at one pound five ounces. Still, it is handsome enough to move from the
kitchen stove to the dining table, and is just the peppermill for your own
summer taverna feast of grilled swordfish or shrimp souvlaki. Contact:
Pepper Mill Imports, Inc., P. O. Box 775, Carmel, California 93921.
Telephone: (831) 393-0244. Website:
www.peppermillimports.com.
Also available through Dean & DeLuca, though not pictured on its website,
www.deananddeluca.com.
Best Small Estate Indian Black Peppercorns
Earlier
this winter at Dean & DeLuca, we spied a display of small cream-colored
cotton bags imprinted with a red label: Parameswaran’s Special Wynad
Pepper. Curious about its provenance, we purchased a 200-gram bag. Back in
the kitchen, we opened an inner vacuum sealed packet, and were nearly bowled
over by a sudden burst of aroma which conveyed the essence of black
pepper: fresh and hot with dark mysterious undertones. The very large, very
black peppercorns were rich, fruity and intensely pungent, with a
lip-searing heat that lingered awhile. They tasted of the sun, as if they
had been plucked and dried yesterday.
This exceptional pepper is grown on a small organic family estate on the
Wynad plateau in Kerala, which produces India’s finest black pepper. In a
valley that, according to the handprinted brochure, abounds with elephants
and the occasional tiger, the peppercorns are left to ripen on the vines
longer than usual. When the green spikes are flushed with red, they are
hand picked and laid out on mats to dry in the sun until they turn black.
The result is
a premium black pepper with unparalled intensity of flavor and aroma, fit
for a rajah’s palate. It is absolutely the right pepper for making black
pepper crab, one of Singapore’s most delectable dishes. Contact: Dean &
Deluca, 560 Broadway, New York, NY 10012. Telephone: 212-226-6800. (Not
available on the website,
www.deandeluca.com.)
Black Pepper: Al the Flavor Without the Burn
Recently,
exploring one of our favorite spice websites,
www.herbies.com.au, we ran across an intriguing new product: black
pepper pericarp. The pericarp is the outer covering of the black
peppercorn. It contains most of the piperine, or volatile oils which give
pepper its irresistible aroma. Curious, we ordered a small sample from
Herbies, which is based in Australia. The 40-gram packet which arrived
days later contained a dark brown, very finely ground pepper with a
wonderfully fresh, nose-tingling aroma. The big surprise came when we
tasted it: the flavor was full and rich, but also mild, with less heat than
most black pepper.
Ian Hemphill, one of Sydney’s premier spice merchants, went in search of
black pepper pericarp at the request of an international chef. He found it
on the island of Sarawak in Malaysia, where much of the world’s white pepper
is produced. (Black, white and green peppercorns all come from the same
vines, but are harvested and processed differently.) In a process known as
decortication, the black outer covering of the peppercorn is mechanically
removed from the central core which is then sold as decorticated black
pepper. The remaining pericarp, when ground, produces a wildly fragrant
“dust” with all the aroma of black pepper, but little of the burn. Hemphill
himself uses it to make pepper steak with “lots of flavour but not too much
heat.” We have found that a light dusting transforms ordinary grilled
salmon into a feast. Contact: Herbie’s Spices, 743 Darling Street, Rozelle
NSW 2039 Australia Telephone: (61) 02-9555-6035. Fax: (62)02-9555-6037.
Website:
www.herbies.com.au.
Best Medicinal Herb and Spice Reference Books
Dr. James
A. Duke has spent his entire professional life in the world of plants--
first, as curator at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, then economic botanist
at the US Department of Agriculture, now explorer of the Amazonian rain
forest and teacher of botanical healing. Throughout, he has devoted himself
to the study of plants as medicine. The culmination of this lifelong
passion are two worthy books so packed with scientific data that we were
tempted at first to recommend them for professional use. Indeed, dipping
into the Handbook of Medicinal Herbs and the
CRC Handbook
of Medicinal Spices
is like opening the door to a world where an alien language is spoken, a
world of alpha-terpineols, bornyl-acetates and the like (chemical
factors which contribute to the antibacterial powers of certain herbs).
And yet there is much for the layman’s delectation. In his discussion of
the herb myrtle, Duke tells us that ancient Jews viewed the plant as a
“symbol of divine generosity,” an emblem of peace and joy. “Arabs say that
myrtle is one of three plants taken from the garden of Eden, because of its
fragrance.” We learned that its oil is used in perfumes and that in
Sardinia whole pigs are roasted over aromatic myrtle wood fires. In other
cultures, various parts of the plant are used to cure everything from boils
and headache to asthma and uterine fibroid tumors. Duke’s underlying thesis
is that with a better understanding of the healing properties of herbs and
spices, modern medicine could dispense with many drugs that have adverse
side effects. Medicinal Spices cites an alarming report in The
Journal of the American Medical Association (May 1, 2002) that Adverse
Drug Reactions (ADRs) are America’s biggest killer. Priced like vintage
wine, neither book is a casual purchase, but either could be a valuable
addition to the home reference shelf. Contact: CRC Press, 2000 N.W.
Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, Florida 33431. Telephone: (800) 272-7737.
Fax: 800/374-3401. Website:
www.crcpress.com.
Contact: The
Conservatory of the U.S. Botanic Garden, 245 First Street SW, Washington, DC
20024. (The main entrance is on The National Mall on Maryland Avenue SW.)
Telephone: (202) 225-8333. Fax: (202) 225-1561. Website:
www.usbg.gov.
The Best Peppermill
The pantry is stocked with a long winter’s supply of peppercorns: boldly
aromatic black peppercorns from the Malabar Coast, creamy white peppercorns
from Sarawak, fresh-tasting green peppercorns from India. But the real
challenge is finding the right peppermill. There are a few immutable rules.
The mill must feel “good” in one’s hand: comfortable, solid, easy to
operate. It must be simple to refill. The grind must be adjustable, from
fine to coarse. It must be so well made that you feel that you might be
able to pass it on to one of your children when he sets up his own household
in years to come. And, of course, it must be beautiful. Or, at least,
able to move from the stove to the table or sideboard without causing too
much commotion.
We extensively tested five peppermills, two of which
are regularly touted as the world’s best. In all of them, we used Penzy’s
Whole Special Extra Bold Indian Black Peppercorns, which have become the
black pepper of choice in our household. Here are the results:
Personal Favorite. The voice on the other
end of the line was abashed: “You mean you’re still using a Peppergun you
bought 15 years ago?” No surprise, actually: even the most basic Tom
David Unicorn peppermill is tested for 40,000 grinds. We love our
Peppergun—a slim bright red plastic cylinder with rabbit ears for
handles—because it’s easy to use and makes us smile every time we look at
it. To grind pepper, simply squeeze the handles together; you can do this
with one hand while the other is stirring the pot. The mill is filled
through a large hole in the side which opens when you twist the body;
we’ve found that using a funnel helps to corral stray peppercorns. The
grind, adjusted by turning a black screw on the underside of the mill,
produces pepper that ranges from finely ground to coarsely cracked. Our
sole complaint—and the only reason we didn’t rate this number one—is that
our model will not sit evenly on its base when the screw is turned out for
the coarsest grind. (This may have been corrected in later models.) In
the meantime, we tend to keep it set for a medium-coarse grind. Although
the exterior is plastic, the grinding mechanism is metal with a zinc
chrome alloy coating. The company, located in Nantucket, makes other
mills, including the Magnum Plus (a black plastic cylinder sans rabbit
ears that has a much larger grinding surface) which was Cook’s
Illustrated’s choice for best peppermill in 1997. You will see these
mills all about you if you summer on the island. Contact: Tom David, Inc.
Telephone: 1-800-634-8881. Website:
www.peppergun.com.
Sexiest Peppermill. Peugeot has been making
pepper and salt grinders since 1842, and the brand is regularly billed as
“the best” by many vendors. We were Peugeot neophytes so we selected a
modestly priced model ($22) made of dark wood, with a sensuously curved
body and a satiny surface that almost begged to be fondled. Beneath the
Euro-sleek exterior is a tough case-hardened steel mechanism with grinding
and channeling grooves that cut peppercorns in half before they are ground
to the desired fineness. In spite of its impressive grinder, we found two
problems. To adjust the grind, you must loosen or tighten the brass screw
on top of the body. For a very coarse grind, the top must be loosened so
much that the body becomes wobbly and unstable. The Peugeot is also
difficult to fill: When the top is removed, the peppercorns must be
poured into the body, passing around a plastic support which holds the
central shaft in place. Hard little block peppercorns bounced all over
the kitchen when we tried to fill it a little too swiftly. Peugeot, which
offers a lifetime warranty on all its peppermills, makes many other
styles, in materials such as beechwood, clear acrylic and stainless.
Contact: Williams-Sonoma, 1-800-541-2233. Website: www.williams-sonoma.com.
Broadway Panhandler, 44 Broome Street, New York, NY 10013. Telephone:
1-800-COOKWARE or 212-966-3434. Website: www.broadwaypanhandler.com.
Most Ancient Regime Peppermill. One can
just imagine the Zassenhaus peppermill dancing atop a swaying table in
Beauty and the Beast. Of all the peppermills we tried, it has the
most fanciful, old-fashioned appearance. Its rounded walnut body
resembles a turret crowned by a burnished brass “minaret.” The handle
angles elegantly up in the air, ending in a smooth walnut knob; a gold “P”
is discreetly emblazoned on the side. Made in Germany for over 100 years,
the Zassenaus has a grinding mechanism made of carbon tool steel, which is
machined rather than cast, so that it stays sharp for years. The grind
can be adjusted by tightening or loosening the “minaret,” and ranges from
very fine to medium coarse; of all the mills we tested, this produces the
finest uniform grind. (If you prefer very coarsely ground pepper, you’ll
be better off with another mill.) It can be filled by unscrewing the top
and pouring in the peppercorns. In all, a solid, well-crafted peppermill,
for those who like the old-fashioned look. Contact: Penzey’s Spices,
19300 West Janacek Court, P.O. Box 924, Brookfield, Wisconsin 53008-0924.
Telephone: 800/741-7787. Fax: 262/785-7678. Website:
www.penzeys.com. (Note: Penzey’s sends the Zassenhaus filled with
Tellicherry peppercorns.)
Sturdiest Peppermill. When we want coarsely
ground pepper—and it seems that’s what the world’s palate craves these
days—we always reach for our Perfex. Made by a 50-year-old French
company, this mill has a sleek nickel-plated cast aluminum body which
houses a rugged metal grinding mechanism with stainless steel heads. To
grind pepper, simply turn the crank top. Actually, this takes two hands
and just a bit of muscle, especially when the mill is set to grind
coarsely. To adjust the grind, there is a round nut underneath the body
which turns smoothly. (As a clerk at Williams-Sonoma explained,
“righty-tighty” produces a reasonably fine grind, “lefty-loosey” creates a
coarser grind, with many variations in between.) The Perfex is easy to
fill through a capacious pull-out chute in the side; we use a funnel to
channel the peppercorns into the grinder. Favored by many chefs, this is
probably the best-made of all the mills we tested. It is attractive in an
industrial sort of way, feels solid in the hand, and produces a wide range
of grinds. If only it had a little more, ummm, flair—then we would be
unabashed admirers. Contact: Williams-Sonoma. Telephone:
1-800-541-2233. Website: www.williams-sonoma.com.
Also at
www.cooking.com
Cheapest Peppermill. Cruising the grocery
aisles, we noticed that McCormick is selling whole black peppercorns in a
glass bottle with a built-in plastic grinder. The mill, similar to those
sold in Europe, is not adjustable nor is the bottle refillable, so you
toss it when empty. The grind is coarse and the “mill” hard to turn.
Still, at $1.99, we’d buy it in an emergency, or for a picnic or beach
barbecue when we wouldn’t want to risk losing our good peppermill. (It’s
strictly for the kitchen, however, since the bottle bears the spice
merchant’s familiar label.) Now, if only McCormick would put premium
peppercorns inside. Widely available at grocery stores. See also
www.mccormick.com.
Best Coffee Table Book About Spices
The most seductive volume we’ve run across lately is Alain
Stella’s
The Book of Spices (Paris: Flammariion, 1998). Beautiful
photographs of the twelve “sovereign” spices—cloves, nutmeg, pepper and so
forth—are interspersed with ancient maps and historical paintings, creating
an intoxicating visual essay that hints at why these precious commodities so
captured the world’s imagination over the centuries. Brilliant fields of
purple saffron crocus in Spain, and a glimpse of Maison Israel in Paris, a
spice lover’s paradise if ever there was one, are the stuff of a traveler’s
dreams.
On a bleak afternoon, snuggling under a mohair throw, with a steaming pot of
cinnamon tea nearby, we nearly lost ourselves in Stella’s occasionally
Franco-centric tales of the spice trade. One of the more fascinating
figures from the past was Pierre Poivre, an eighteenth-century
Frenchman who singlemindly devoted his entire life—losing an arm in the
process—to stealing nutmeg and clove plants so that France could break the
Dutch stranglehold. The chapters on each spice are a pleasure to peruse;
the connoisseur's guide in the back offers intriguing information about
spices used in perfumes and chocolate, as well as a list of the author’s
favorite spice shops in the U.S., England and France.
Best Black Pepper: Tellicherry and
Beyond
One whiff of the rich, fruity aroma of Tellicherry peppercorns
explains much about the Age of Exploration—why,
when most Europeans were subsisting on watery gruel and rotten meat, an
ounce of fragrant black pepper could cost as much as an ounce of gold, and
why captains from half a dozen nations risked everything on perilous,
globe-circling voyages to distant equatorial lands. Today, of course,
pepper is commonplace, as accessible as the nearest supermarket, but the
ordinary finely ground stuff that appears in shakers across America is a
pale echo of the pungent spice that launched empires and destroyed countless
lives.
There are at least 13 different types
of black pepper. Tellicherry peppercorns, which are grown on the
Malabar coast of India north of Cochin, have long occupied pride of place in
our spice cabinet and are considered top grade by the spice industry. Like
French grapes, their flavor begins with the terroir or particular
soil in which they are grown. The berries are left to ripen on the
vine longer than others, resulting in peppercorns that are larger, sweeter
and more complex in flavor. Though not actually black, Tellicherry
peppercorns are are more uniformly dark brown than other pepper when dried.
Cracked or coarsely ground, they have a vibrancy which enhances a
surprising range of flavors. Lately we've found that ground Tellicherry
pepper on our strawberries makes them even sweeter.
As with all good comestibles, one
eventually discovers greater possibilities. Recently we ran across an even
more select grade of pepper in the pages of Penzeys' Catalogue of
Seasonings: Whole Special Extra Bold Indian Black Peppercorns. (In
industry terms, "special" means best flavor, extra bold refers to the extra
large size.) According to Penzeys, only ten pounds out of every ton of
pepper can be given this moniker; the berries are Tellicherry but they are
left even longer to ripen and are picked from a particular part of the vine.
This pepper differs from Penzeys' Tellicherry in that the initial flavors
are more robust, and that the slowly ascending heat achieves a mellower
burn.
We'd use either of these premium black
peppercorns as a cracked or coarsely ground condiment—on
creamy goat cheese, or over slices of luscious mango sprinkled with lime
juice. But we also used the Special Extra Bold peppercorns with abandon in
a version of Singapore-style pepper shrimp with ginger and garlic to great
applause from our teary-eyed dining companions. Next up: black pepper ice
cream. Contact: Penzeys Spices. 19300 West Janacek Court, P.O. Box 924,
Brookfield, Wisconsin 53008-0924. Telephone: 800-741-7787. Fax:
262-785-7678. Website: www.penzeys.com.
Best Indian Spice Shop in Toronto
Squeezing through the narrow aisles of Kohinoor Foods, a
slightly ramshackle corner grocery store in Little India, one virtually
bathes in the fragrance of fresh spices. Neatly wrapped and labeled
packages of wrinkly black cardamom pods, golden Gujarati fennel seeds, fiery
chili peppers and a dozen other spices found their way into our shopping
basket. Kohinoor is also a good source for uncommon ingredients such as
palm sugar and black salt. We’re still trying to figure out what’s in the
addictive red paan masala, a spice mixture chewed as a digestif
after a heavy meal. We've identified fennel and silver dragees, but what
are those dyed crimson seeds that have given us a permanently pink
mouth? Kohinoor Foods. 1438 Gerard Street East, Toronto, Ontario M4L1Z8.
Telephone: 416-461-4432.
Best Spice
Websites
e. Best A
to Z Spice Encyclopedia on the Web. As a quick research tool, we
highly recommend The Encyclopedia of Spices at
www.theepicentre.com. This
Canadian website provides an attractively illustrated page detailing
everything you need to know about each of 40 exotic spices and herbs, from
ajowan to zeodary. For each spice, there are short sections on history and
lore, physical description, preparation and storage, culinary and medical
uses, plant cultivation, and links to recipes. Looking up ginger, for
example, we learned that in the 19th-century barkeeepers put out
small containers of the ground spice for customers to sprinkle in their beer
(supposedly the origin of ginger ale), that the best ginger is a pale,
buff-colored rhizome grown in Jamaica, and that it was used in the time of
Henry VIII to combat the plague. In the recipe section, we found a
wonderful Singaporean recipe for prawns with ginger and coconut milk.
For anyone who is interested in the
history of spices, The Epicentre has reprinted a superb article from The
Economist, “The Spice Trade: A Taste of Adventure” (December 1998, pp.
51-56), and a chapter from
Tastes of Paradise, by Wolfgang Schivelbusch, which debunks the
common perception that spices were used so heavily in the Middle Ages to
disguise rotting food. Instead, he argues that they were tangible gifts
form an exotic world, an imaginary paradise far superior to the muddy, cold,
disease-ridden realities of medieval Europe. Just like our BMWs and Hermes
Kelly Bags, they were meant to advertise the possessor's wealth and status
to the rest of the world.
d.
Quirkiest Spice Website.
Dragon’s
blood, spikenard, grains of paradise. Virtually unknown today, these are
all spices that were used in ancient and medieval times. They can still be
had from the website (www.silk.net/sirene) of Francesco Sirene, Spicer, a 15th-century
Venetian trader invented by David Dendy and Jane Hanna, two members of the
Society for Creative Anachronism. Members of this offbeat group tend to be
obsessed with times past: they try to live as one might have in 13th-century
England or 17th-century Russia (for example), and regularly stage
complicated feasts which recreate outlandish dishes from old cookery books.
The
proprietors’ aim is to provide all the paraphernalia one might need for
historical cookery. Hence, Sirene sells old
cookbooks, such as Curye on
Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century, as
well as exotic, hard to find spices--including the aforementioned dragon’s
blood (actually a red resin used in incense and various pigments) and
spikenard (a bitter, aromatic root used in ancient Rome and in medieval
spiced wine). One of the most intriguing sections is Spice Chests, which
discusses in some detail all the spices one might need in order to cook as
did the ancient Romans or Norwegians of the 12th century. (In case you were
wondering, grains of paradise are a type of pepper, wildly sought after in
the Middle Ages, now mainly used in African cooking.)
c. Most Scientific Spice Website.
Gernot Katzer
is a 33-year-old Austrian chemist who took a vacation from his work on
silicon hydrides and theoretical thermochemistry in order to travel to Asia
where he explored his consuming passion for spices with camera and pen in
hand. The remarkable website,
www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/engl/, that ensued discusses 113 herbs
and spices in great scientific detail.
Typically a
Katzer entry on, say, pepper, begins with a long list of the names of the
spice in many languages. We learned that in the Punjab, one would ask for
Kali marich, but in Turkey, one would request biber. This is
followed by a close-up photo of the different varieties of pepper and an
analysis of the chemical constituents that make up its aroma and flavor--in
this case, the pungent principle is “an alkaloid-analog compound, piperine.”
Katzer also includes a section on etymology (pepper derives from the
Sanskrit pippali which in turn stems from the Greek peperi
and the Latin piper), photographs of pepper plants in various stages
of growth, a smattering of history, harvesting information, and a summary of
the way pepper is used in various cuisines. We’re intrigued by his
suggestion that pepper might enhance the sweet-tart flesh of the mango.
Despite its
academic bent, Katzer's site never gets dull. He is an enthusiastic, often
amusing, always passionate writer. Unfortunately, the site, which is
located at the University of Graz in Austria, can be hard to access and
tricky to navigate. To get the list of spices, you must be on the Welcome
Page.
b. Most Exotic Spice Website in the
Southern Hemisphere. Most of the spices in our cupboard are grown
within a narrow band around the equator and it occurred to us that a spice
purveyor not too distant from the black pepper groves of Malabar or the
cinnamon forests of Sri Lanka might have a slight edge in obtaining high
quality, very fresh spices. One can almost smell these exotic fragrances
while perusing the Australian site,
www.herbies.com.au. Ian Hemphill, a.k.a. Herbie, spent 30 years
in the spice trade before opening a shop near Sydney which offers an
enormous range of the world’s herbs and spices.
The website vividly communicates
Hemphill’s lifelong love of spices. Click on any one of the 22 newsletters,
for example, and you’ll discover a report on a trip to India to see the
pepper harvest or a lively discussion of the complex fragrances of the
Moroccan seasoning mix, ras al hanout. Tantalizing recipes, many with
an Asian slant, are scattered throughout the site. The global product list
includes all the usual herbs and spices, but also more off-beat offerings
such as dried Australian wattleseed, said to lend a coffee-like aroma to ice
cream. Our only quibble is that each product description is accompanied by
a generic picture of some spice packages. (We’d actually like to see those wattleseeds.)
Currently in search of pepper to upgrade the larder,
we ordered a variety of peppercorns including the hard to find long pepper
(spiky peppers with a musky odor widely used in medieval recipes) and inky
“extrablack” supergrade whole peppercorns from India. Our faxed order was
acknowledged hours later by e-mail, with a query: Did we wish to purchase
green peppercorns that could be ground in a peppermill or freeze dried
peppercorns that could simply be crumbled? (We took both.) The package
arrived within 10 days, each variety individually packed in a heavy
vacuum-sealed plastic bag. (The peppercorns will be reviewed in a
forthcoming segment of Best of Class).
Note: Hemphill’s fascinating
Spice Notes may be ordered directly from the website, or in the
U.S. in March 2002 under the title,
The Spice and Herb Bible: A Cook's Guide (Amazon). The
book recently made the Saveur 100 list (see the Jan./Feb.,
2002 issue, p. 63).
a. Most All-American Spice Website.
Penzey’s is probably the finest small spice retailer in the U.S. We
discovered the Wisconsin-based shop years ago in the pages of Saveur
: we were struck, then as now, by the freshness and quality of its spices
and the variety of its product line. Today, Penzeys operates a chain of 9
stores, as well as a thriving mail order business. It is a good source for
unusual herbs and spices, as well hard to find varieties of the usual
suspects--i.e. soft, citrusy “true” cinnamon from Ceylon, or fine 100% red
thread Indian “Mogra Cream” saffron from Kashmir. Despite the exotic
origins of most of Penzey¹s spices, both the catalogue and website (www.penzeys.com)
have a distinctly Midwestern flavor, with down-home recipes for pork roast
and twice-baked potatoes outnumbering those for chicken biryani.
We enjoy Penzey’s website because, like the
catalogue, it is informative and well-illustrated. An essay on
peppercorns, for example, explains in straightforward detail how pepper is
grown and harvested in India and Borneo. We discovered that the famed Tellicherry peppercorns are plucked from the clusters of pepper at the tip
of the vines which receive the most sunlight, and that harvesters in
Sarawak preserve the flavor of their peppercorns by means of an indoor hot
air drying process--at the request of German sausage makers. Following
the essay are clear photos of all the different types of peppercorns
carried by Penzeys, and links to short descriptions of each variety. We
also like reading the employee newsletter, which offers a
behind-the-scenes glimpse of the business.
In our quest for the best pepper, we recently ordered
every type of peppercorn on offer, as well as vanilla beans and cinnamon
chunks for apple cider. Though service is normally quick, our faxed order
languished unanswered and we did not receive our shipment for about three
weeks--albeit with a note of apology for the delay. (Peppercorns will be
reviewed in a forthcoming segment of Best of Class).
More Black Pepper from India and
Malaysia
Our pepper explorations have opened unexpected doors. We've
crunched on more black peppercorns than we ever imagined possible. With
burning lips and scorched taste buds, we've made the not-so-surprising
discovery that the flavor of pepper grown in different geographic regions
can be as subtle and varied as chocolate, or even varietal wines. The soil
in which the vines of piper nigrum are planted, the ripeness of the
berries when plucked, and the method of processing and drying all contribute
to the particular taste of peppercorns from, say, India or Malaysia.
In the spice industry, it is widely
agreed that the best black pepper comes from India and that Malabar pepper—high
in volatile oil and pungent oleoresins—is
the finest of the mass market varieties. Even so, we found that the quality
varies widely. Some Malabar pepper that we tasted was, well, nearly
tasteless, hot and nothing more; some was simply stale. But Penzeys
Spices, a high-end Wisconsin-based purveyor, offers a particularly fine
India Malabar pepper with a light, fragrant aroma and a rush of fiery heat
that lingers on the palate. Though not as complex as the company's
Tellicherry pepper, this is still a good, all-purpose pepper which you could
use in almost any culinary fashion, from making a French vinaigrette to
finishing a bowl of lemon, mint and ricotta pasta. Contact: Penzeys
Spices, 19300 West Janacek Court, P.O. Box 924, Brookfield, Wisconsin,
53008-0924. Telephone: 800-741-7787. Fax: 262-785-7678. Website:
www.penzeys.com.
Another Indian black pepper came to us
via Herbie's Spices, based in Sydney, Australia. These South Indian
Super Grade Extra Black peppercorns have been blanched to accelerate the
enzymatic reaction that turns freshly picked green peppercorns black. The
peppercorns are, indeed, quite black and also very large. Their flavor is
strong and bold, rich but not particularly subtle, with a straightforward
medium heat. We'd use it in dishes that require an assertive cracked or
coarsely ground pepper: steak au poivre, for instance, or pepper
crab, an unforgettable dish we devoured with streaming eyes on a moonlit
terrace in Singapore some years ago. Contact: Herbies Spices, 745 Darling
Street, Rozelle NSW 2039, Australia. Telephone: 02-9555-6035. Fax:
02-9555-6037. Website: www.herbies.com.au.
Pepper has been grown in Sarawak on the
island of Borneo since 1875. In an essay in his catalogue, Bill Penzey says
that he likes working with Sarawak pepper growers because they believe that
"high quality pepper is worth more than money.... [I]t is a source of pride
and a part of their cultural heritage." Penzeys' Sarawak Black pepper is
hand picked at the right moment of ripeness and then, unlike most other
black pepper, is dried indoors, which protects it from the elements and
helps to preserve its flavor. This is one of the most intriguing peppers we
tasted: the flavor is toasty at first, with fresh green notes,
followed by a mild heat that peaks quickly and fades. Because it is
relatively delicate, we'd use this pepper as an adventurous seasoning for
sweet fruit, such as pineapple and strawberries, and in baked goods, such as
black pepper biscotti, where one wants just a hint of fire. Contact: Penzeys
Spices, as above.
Best Guide for Pepper Travelers
Our kitchen table peregrinations through the lands of pepper were
helped immeasurably by Salt and Pepper, a wonderful book by Michele
Anna Jordan that was recommended by Corby Kummer in The Atlantic Monthly:
Jordan is funny, smart and probably has a very keen palate. We were
charmed by her visit to the Malaysian Pepper Marketing Board, where the
aroma of bushels of fresh black pepper nearly drove her mad with hunger, and
to a nearby farm where she downed potent rice wine and nibbled fresh green
pepper berries off the vine. There is good, solid information about
the different varieties of pepper and salt and many useful addresses in the
glossary. Our only frustration is that we have been unable to find the very
fine Malaysian pepper, sold under the label Naturally Clean Black Pepper,
but it is always good to have a grail to search for. The book has 135
recipes, including one for black pepper ice cream, which we made with
Penzeys' Sarawak Black peppercorns: imagine a good vanilla ice cream
with a luscious afterburn. Salt and Pepper (New York: Broadway Books,
1999) is out of print, but you may find a used copy at
www.abe.com.
Best Sea Salt from Portugal:
Necton's Flor de Sal
The first thing one notices about Necton's sea salt is how thin and
flat the crystals are. At the harvest along Portugal's Algarve coast, food
writer Corby Kummer observed a crystal floating on the water like "an
oversized dragonfly's wing." As Kummer relates in The Atlantic
Monthly ("The Cream of the Salt Pan," March, 2002, pp. 100-102), the
discovery of this lovely salt was a happy accident. Two Portuguese
aquaculture students who were restoring wetlands in order to produce algae
for food manufacturers stumbled across a detritus-clogged salt pan. After
cleaning it out and letting sea water flow into the maze of ever shallower
channels and eventually evaporate under the blazing Algarve sun, they saw
something wonderful: "irregularly shaped, mica-like formations skittering
along the surface, visible only if viewed at the right angle, glinting in
the sun." It was flor de sal, the very finest, topmost layer of
mineral-rich sea salt, whiter even than the prized fleur de sel from
Brittany. Soon plans for algae production were put on the back burner as
they began to harvest the salt by hand.
Now comes the kicker: Under Portuguese
law, this lovely, but unrefined flor de sal is classified as Grade
III salt, fit only for de-icing roads. A few daring gourmet shops in
Portugal carry it; in this country one can order it from Zingerman's in Ann
Arbor (www.zingermans.com). The
flavor is fulsome, at first intensely salty, but quickly mellowing into a
briny sweetness that leaves the tastebuds refreshed. The enclosure
which came with the salt suggested a test: frying an egg with common
table salt and another with Necton's flor de sal. We complied. The
former was merely salty, but the latter was a revelation: a light sprinkle
enhanced the rich creaminess--even voluptuousness--of the yolk, imparting a
faintly sweet flavor to the white. Icy roads never had it so good.
More Sea Salt from Around the
Globe: England, Sicily, Hawaii
Traveling along our own exotic salt routes, we had close encounters of the
most delectable kind with a number of other sea salts. Although not as
stellar as Necton's or the Guerande fleur de sel, each is far
superior to ordinary table salt and to the Kosher salt favored by many
professional chefs. Maldon Sea Salt, produced along the English coast in
Essex since 1882, has large, bright white, flakey crystals with a lightly
salty taste that rapidly dissipates, making it ideal for cooks who simply
want to add a soupcon of flavor to the pot. From Sicily comes Sale Marino
di Trapani, produced in the ancient Phoenician manner at saltworks near
Marsala and Trapani: the large, grosso (coarse-grained) crystals are
very salty, packing a wallop that stands up to meaty swordfish grilled with
rosemary, lemon and garlic. And finally, we confess to an unfashionable
fondness for Alaea red seasalt, harvested from tidal pools in Kaua'i.
Purists complain that the salt is mixed with natural iron-rich clay to
achieve a color that varies from light rose to deep terracotta, but the
mellow flavor of the medium-sized crystals seems to enhance almost every
sort of food. Besides, Alaea is still used in sacred Hawaiian rituals, a
notion which returns the use of salt on food to its wondrous roots.
Maldon Sea Salt and Sale Marino de
Trapani may be ordered from Corti Brothers, 5810 Folsom Blvd., Sacramento,
CA 95819. Telephone: 800-509-FOOD. Fax: 916-736-3807. Alaea sea
salt may be ordered from Hawaii Specialty Salt Company, P.O. Box 5766,
Hilo, HI 96720. Telephone: 808-334-3929. Website:
www.hawaiisalt.com.
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