From Bermuda Lifestyles
The Curious Cook By Edward
Bottone
HOT! HOT! HOT! - Yeaton Outerbridge Turns
on the Heat
There are some hot goings on in the old slaves'
quarters at the three hundred year old Villa Monticello.
Yeaton Outerbridge, whose ancestry goes back even further than
that has been spending a lot of time down in that basement. And why not? It is
his house and they are his vats of steeping sherry peppers.
What is a sherry pepper the uninitiated might ask.
It is said to have originated in the 19th century Royal Navy. It
seems the imaginative sailors were fortifying sherry with hot peppers
and spices to concoct an all-purpose seasoning.
Like so many 'hot sauces' the original purpose of the 'seasoning'
was to mask the taste of shipboard rations and more often than not,
rancid meat. So really it
should have been called a whole lot less misleadingly, peppered sherry -
a little too late to argue. In
spite of its history and previous applications, it is an infusion that
can be though of as a sauce or condiment, depending on how liberally you
plan to use it.
So if its a sauce and not a pepper - what's in it?
"Well let's see," said Yeaton Outerbridge (known as (Y.D.O.
to some) reaching into his
wallet and pulling out a little dog-eared card, "there are
seventeen herbs and spices in thee pappers," he drawled
characteristically, "allspice, basil leaves, cinnamon, leaf
marjoram, nutmeg, rosemary, Dalmation sage (this Yugoslav outpost
producing the best), mustard seed and so on and so forth."
He chuckled furtively, as if safeguarding the secret of the spear
of destiny.
Later in the immaculate basement at 'Villa Monticello", I am, even
before the vats are uncovered, instantly assailed by the pungent and
complex aroma of the macerating sherry peppers. From the cyclone of scents I identify several, if not
seventeen, herbs and spices in the air vying for attention with the
undeniably menacing aroma of those palette-searing incendiary peppers.
"It's a Chinese papper. A Funtua (fun-chew-a) papper," said Y.D.O.
"They're about an inch to an inch and a half long, there's a
basketful of 'em there. don't
touch 'em. We once used the
Hontha, a Japanese papper. These
are hotter." Great I
thought, wondering how the room didn't burst into spontaneous
combustion. "What's
the gas mask for?" I asked worriedly, glancing around the
bunker-like surroundings. "Wall
after a while don here with de pappers it makes me want to sneeze.
I can't be sneezin', can I? So I wear the mask.
The 'capiscum" does that - you know about that though."
Paprika, cayenne pepper, as well as fresh chilies and 'bell' peppers all
are 'capiscum annuum', and all part of the plant group intriguingly
called nightshades. These
are not to be confused with 'Piper nigrum' or those little black
shriveled berries that waiters are so eager to grind on just about
everything these days.
Paprika, the stare of 'cuisine Hungroise', is made from a blend of
pungent, but milder peppers, that have been nationalized in Hungary sine
1585. Dried, ground, hot
cayenne pepper comes from Cayenne, French Guyana.
Other red hots include that pepper integral to south-western
cooking, the jalapeno, cute to behold but can bring more tears to your
eyes than a broken heart. Bright
green serranos are also popular south-of-the-border additives and can
perk up you next guacamole.
