( , 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
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 ...
.
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.
See also
*
Berbere
Berbere ( Oromo: ''Barbaree'', am, በርበሬ ''bärbäre'', ti, በርበረ ''bärbärä'') is a spice mixture whose constituent elements usually include chili peppers, coriander, garlic, ginger, Ethiopian holy basil (besobela) seeds, ''kora ...
*
List of ''Capsicum'' cultivars
References
External links
*
{{Hot sauces , state=autocollapse
Portuguese cuisine
Brazilian cuisine
Spices
Chili peppers
Reduplicants
Capsicum cultivars
Hot sauces
Mozambican cuisine
Angolan cuisine
Namibian cuisine
South African cuisine