( , often hyphenated or as one word, and with variant spellings , ''piripiri'' or ) is a cultivar of '' Capsicum frutescens'' from the

malagueta pepper Malagueta pepper (), a variety of ''Capsicum frutescens'', is a type of chili pepper widely used in Brazil, the Caribbean, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola, and São Tomé and Príncipe. It apparently got its name from the unrelated melegueta pepper ...

. It was originally produced by Portuguese explorers in Portugal's former Southern African territories, particularly Mozambique and its border regions with South Africa, and then spread to other Portuguese domains.

Etymology

''Pilipili'' in

Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language official in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa * Swahili culture Swahili culture is the culture of ...

means "pepper". Other romanizations include in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Malawi, deriving from various pronunciations of the word in different parts of Bantu-speaking Africa. is also the spelling used as a loanword in some African Portuguese-language countries, especially in the Mozambican community. The spelling is common in English, for example in reference to African-style chili sauce, but in Portuguese it is nearly always spelled ''piri-piri''. The ''

Oxford Dictionary of English The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''ODE'') is a single-volume English dictionary published by Oxford University Press, first published in 1998 as ''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''NODE''). The word "new" was dropped from the titl ...

'' records as a foreign word meaning "a very hot sauce made with red ", and gives its ultimate origin as the word for "pepper" (presumably in the native-African sense) in the Ronga language of southern Mozambique, where Portuguese explorers developed the homonymous cultivar from

Plant characteristics

Plants are usually very bushy and grow in height to with leaves long and wide. The fruits are generally tapered to a blunt point and measure up to long. Immature pod colour is green, mature colour is bright red or purple. Some Bird's eye chili varieties measure up to 175,000 Scoville heat units.

Cultivation

Like all chili peppers, is descended from plants from the Americas, but it has grown in the wild in Africa for centuries and is now cultivated commercially in Zambia, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda. It grows mainly in Malawi, Zambia, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Portugal. It is cultivated for both commercial food processing and the pharmaceutical industry. Cultivation of is labor-intensive.

sauce

Originally produced by Portuguese in Southern Africa (there is still a debate whether Portuguese initially produced it in Angola or Mozambique), the sauce is made from chilis (used as a seasoning or marinade). Beyond Portugal and the Southern African region (Angola, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa) where it was born, the sauce is particularly well known in the United Kingdom due to the success of the

South African __NOTOC__ South African may relate to: * The nation of South Africa * South African Airways * South African English * South African people * Languages of South Africa * Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...

restaurant chain Nando's. Recipes vary from region to region, and sometimes within the same region depending on intended use (example, cooking vs. seasoning at the table) but the key ingredients are chili and garlic, with an oily or acidic base. Other common ingredients are salt, spirits (namely whisky), citrus peel, onion, pepper,

bay leaves The bay leaf is an aromatic leaf commonly used in cooking. It can be used whole, either dried or fresh, in which case it is removed from the dish before consumption, or less commonly used in ground form. It may come from several species of tr ...

paprika Paprika ( US , ; UK , ) is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers. It is traditionally made from ''Capsicum annuum'' varietals in the Longum group, which also includes chili peppers, but the peppers used for paprika tend to be milder an ...

pimiento A pimiento or pimento (or cherry pepper) is a variety of large, red, heart-shaped chili pepper (''Capsicum annuum'') that measures 3 to 4 in (7 to 10 cm) long and 2 to 3 in (5 to 7 cm) wide (medium, elongate). Pimientos can have vario ...

, basil, oregano and tarragon.

References

External links