Cubeb Pepper Gourmet Cert. Organic 1.16 oz: K

All Frontier Bottled Spices are freshness dated, non-irradiated, safety sealed and feature a convenient shaker top for easy use. Bitter and hot cubebs were replaced by black pepper in Europe when that became widely available. They are still a North African favorite, popular in Moroccan spice mixtures. Native to Indonesia, particularly Java, cubeb came to Europe via India through the Venetian trade with the Arabs. Its main European use appears to have been medicinal, in the treatment of urinary infections and bronchitis. Cubeb is used in Indonesian gulés (curries). Because of its aromatic qualities, cubeb goes well with meat, cheese and vegetable dishes. It may be substituted for pepper in spice mixtures such as quatre-épices for flavouring patés, sausages, gingerbreads and spiced biscuits. Another use for cubeb is in place of allspice, where it will give a more peppery flavour. Here is an authentic 15th century English cubeb recipe: http://www.godecookery.com/mtrans/mtrans24.htm: A Royal Pie. Take and make little pie shells, & take Chicken boiled; or Pork boiled; or them both: take Cloves, Mace, Cubeb, & hack all together, & mix it with crumbled marrow, & add just the right amount of Sugar; then place it a pie shell, & in the middle place a piece of marrow, & all over some Sugar, and let it bake; & this is for a supper. Ingredients: 1 or 2 nine-inch pie shells Boiled chicken, diced Boiled pork, diced Cloves (powder) Mace Cubeb Marrow, diced or crumbled Sugar Marrow, one spoonful of diced or 1 med. sized chunk Directions: For this recipe use either pork or chicken, or a combination of both. Combine meat with spices and diced marrow; add sugar to taste. Place this mixture in the pie shell(s). Place the additional marrow on the top middle then sprinkle sugar over the entire pie. Bake until crust is golden and the top has browned. Serve for an evening meal. Grieve's classic 'A Modern Herbal': 'Stimulant, carminative, much used as a remedy for gonorrhoea, after the first active inflammatory symptoms have subsided; also used in leucorrhoea, cystitis, urethritis, abscesses of the prostate gland, piles and chronic bronchitis.' King's 1898 Dispensatory: 'Cubebs are mildly stimulant, expectorant, stomachic, and carminative. They act more particularly upon mucous tissues, arresting excessive discharges, especially from the urethra. In large doses they produce increased frequency and fullness of pulse and augmented heat; occasionally they cause nausea, vomiting, burning pain, griping, or even purging. Sometimes they cause a rash-like eruption on the skin.' 'They exercise an influence over the urinary apparatus, frequently producing diuresis, rendering the urine of a deeper color, with a peculiar, aromatic odor. They have been successfully employed in gonorrhoea, gleet, leucorrhoea, catarrh of the urinary bladder, chronic inflammation of the bladder, abscess of the prostate, chronic laryngitis and