Today, it is difficult to imagine Indian food without chilli. From fiery curries and chutneys to pickles and tempering, the ingredient is so deeply embedded in regional cooking that it can seem as though it has always been part of the Indian pantry. But chilli is not native to India. Before it arrived from the Americas in the 16th century, Indian cooks had other ways of adding heat and pungency to their food. Black pepper and long pepper were particularly important, while ginger, mustard, and hing brought their own distinctive sharpness and aroma. Each has a story that predates the chilli’s arrival.
Long Pepper Was Once More Important Than Black Pepper
Long pepper, or pippali, is one of the oldest sources of heat in Indian cooking. A close relative of black pepper, it has an elongated shape and a more complex, lingering pungency. It was used in India as both a culinary spice and a medicinal ingredient long before chilli arrived.
Its story also extends far beyond the subcontinent. Long pepper reached Greece through land trade routes as early as the 6th or 5th century BCE and was initially used as medicine. By the Roman period, it had become an important culinary spice and was reportedly more expensive than black pepper. The two were sometimes confused, despite their differences.
Long pepper remained popular in Europe through the Middle Ages, appearing in medieval recipes for drinks, spiced wines, and hippocras. Its decline was closely connected to changing trade routes. As maritime trade expanded, black pepper could reach European markets more easily and cheaply. The arrival of chilli from the Americas dealt another blow to long pepper’s popularity in the West. By the 17th century, it had largely disappeared from Western cooking, although it continued to be used in parts of South and Southeast Asia.
Black Pepper Was India’s Original ‘Hot’ Spice
Long before chilli became synonymous with Indian heat, there was black pepper. Native to the Malabar Coast of southern India, kali mirch was one of the country’s most important spices and a valuable commodity in long-distance trade.
Its pungency made it useful in cooking, but its importance went well beyond the kitchen. Black pepper travelled from India to markets across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, where it became a prized commodity. The spice was valuable enough to earn the nickname “black gold” and played a role in the trade networks that connected India with the wider world.
So the absence of chilli did not mean that Indian food lacked heat. Black pepper provided a different kind of bite, while long pepper offered another, more lingering form of pungency. Together, they were part of the spice vocabulary of Indian cooking before capsicum arrived.
Ginger Brought A Different Kind Of Warmth
Ginger’s history is older than the chilli’s by several millennia. Native to tropical Southeast Asia, it was carried across the Indo-Pacific by Austronesian peoples and eventually became established in the culinary and medicinal traditions of India and China.
Its journey did not stop in Asia. By the first century CE, ginger had reached the Mediterranean through Arab and Persian trade networks. Greeks used it as a digestive aid, while the Romans valued it for both cooking and medicine. Its name even travelled with it: the Romans called it zingiber.
Ginger later became an important commodity in medieval Europe, where it could be an expensive luxury. It was eventually cultivated in the Caribbean, particularly in Jamaica, after being introduced there by Spanish explorers in the 16th century. Today, of course, ginger is deeply familiar in Indian cooking, where its sharpness and warmth are often combined with other spices.
Mustard Added Pungency Before Chilli
Mustard seeds brought another kind of heat to Indian food. Rai and sarson have long been part of South Asian cooking, particularly in regional tempering traditions. When mustard seeds are heated in oil, they pop and release their characteristic pungent aroma.
The spice also has a history that extends beyond the kitchen. Mustard has been cultivated for thousands of years, and references to it appear in ancient Indian traditions. The mustard seed even appears in the Buddhist story of Kisa Gotami, in which Gautama Buddha uses the ordinary seed to teach a lesson about the universality of death and loss.
Its culinary role, however, is more immediate. Mustard was one of the ingredients that gave food sharpness and character before chilli became ubiquitous. Rather than providing the direct, lingering burn associated with chilli, it contributed pungency as part of the wider combination of spices used in Indian cooking.
Hing Was So Pungent That It Was Called ‘Devil’s Dung’
Few ingredients in the Indian pantry have a reputation quite like hing. Asafoetida is a resin obtained from the roots of a plant native to parts of Afghanistan, Iran and Uzbekistan. In its raw form, it has an exceptionally strong smell, which explains both its divisive reputation and the rather dramatic English nickname “devil’s dung”.
In India, the resin is usually powdered and mixed with flour before being sold. A tiny quantity is enough to transform a dish, and it is generally added to hot oil during cooking. Its pungency became particularly useful in cuisines where onion and garlic were avoided. It also had uses far beyond food. It was used in traditional medicine, while in different parts of the world people historically carried it as an amulet. In the United States in 1918, some people even wore bags containing asafoetida believing that it could ward off the Spanish flu. Today, it is also used as a pesticide in organic farming. India remains its largest consumer, although the country historically imported almost all of its hing because the plant was not cultivated domestically on a significant scale.
So, How Did Chilli Arrive In India?
Chilli’s story begins thousands of kilometres away. Capsicum was domesticated in the Americas and did not exist in India before the Columbian Exchange. After Christopher Columbus encountered chilli in the Caribbean, the plant travelled to Europe and then through Portuguese trade networks, around 1542, sourcing it from Brazil and introducing it through Goa, where it was known as “Pernambuco pepper” after the Brazilian region from which it came. From there, the plant spread through the subcontinent, finding its way into regional cuisines and eventually becoming one of the defining ingredients of Indian food.
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