As a chilihead, I have a strong interest in “hot” spices, always looking for new ones – but it appears practically all of them are made from some species of chili pepper. Presumably there was little “hot” food in the Old World before Columbus. So far as I can find, the only other hot spices are:
black pepper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pepper) – “white pepper,” “green pepper” and “pink pepper” are all just piper niger at a different state of maturity, or refined.
Szechuan pepper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szechuan_pepper) – a Chinese spice; I’ve never had it, so far as I know (it might have been an ingredient in a Chinese dish I’ve eaten)
Typical ingredients of curry powder include coriander, turmeric, cumin, mustard, fenugreek, cardamom, nutmeg, red pepper, cinnamon, and cloves (from Wikopedia).
If your in the US then Szechuan peppercorns are illegal to bring into the country although theres a lively trade in grey market smuggling for foodies in the know.
Actually, pink peppercorns are a totally different species than black or white peppercorns. But they are also New World plants, originating in either Brazil or Peru. The Peruvian species is Schinus molle, the Brazilian is Schinus Terebinthifolius.
And there are other species of pepper in the Piperaceae family that are no longer commonly used except in other countries:
Cubeb pepper – Piper cubeba
Ashanti pepper – Piper guineense
Long pepper – Piper longum, somtimes also used for Piper retrofractum
The first two have sweet overtones. Long pepper was originally imported into Europe before black pepper, and is supposedly more pungent.
Then there is the Negro pepper which is unrelated to black pepper – Xylopia aethiopica, which is supposed to be sweet-hot with overtones of a nutmeg flavor. It was occasionally imported into Europe from Africa when black pepper was unavailable.
A couple of other plants which produce a “hot” taste:
Tasmanian pepper – Tasmania lanceolata, which is supposed to start out sweet, progress quickly to a pungent “hot” taste, followed by numbness. (similar to Sichuan pepper)
Water pepper – Polygonum hydropiper – fresh leaves are used in Japanese cooking and are supposed to have a similar taste effect to Tasmanian pepper and Sichuan pepper.
All of these were found in one of my favorite online spice references – Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. He lists a huge number of spices unseen in this country. Along with all the spice listings are the names in dozens of languages, so that you can tell for sure if the spice listed in that Asian cookbook is really the same spice that is available here or if it is just a substitute with the same name in English. Really, it’s a great reference.
There are many greens, in addition to mustard, which have a very peppery effect. Not exactly hot like chile pepper, but more like black pepper or mustard.
Second the hotness of paprika. I mentioned to somebody once that that’s what makes Flamin’ Hot Cheetos flamin’ hot. He said that paprika wasn’t hot, so I handed him a handful and took his water away from him…
Paprika is generally made from New World peppers, which is what the OP was trying to get away from. However, if you’re interested in some truly flavorful paprika, try Spanish paprika (scroll down about halfway) in either hot or sweet variety. It has a deep smoky flavor that beats Hungarian hands down.
I don’t know. Good quality Hungarian sweet paprika is phenomenal. The stuff they sell in the stores (Pride of Szeged, typically) is decent, but I get mine shipped to me when Hungarian friends visit or when I visit there (typically twice a year.) You’d be surprised at the sheer variety of paprika they have there: there’s four basic grades of paprika—all with different flavor profiles, plus some of these varieties come in different levels of heat. The best paprika I’ve ever had was freshly home-ground paprika my girlfriend’s parents made. The intensity of the red color and the aroma of the essential oils was amazing.
Spanish paprika is great, too. But I would say it’s a bit hyperbolic to say it beats Hungarian hands down. Personalloy, I prefer Hungarian for most uses, although as long as you use either Hungarian or Spanish paprika, I have no qualms. (That McCormick stuff is utter crap. It doesn’t even look like paprika with it’s dull reddish brown color. Most paprika should be a vibrant red.)
They are available in most places except US, though they aren’t really all that hot and are more arromatic in flavour.
Garlic can be quite hot if raw, as can be some onions. Vinegar can bring out the hot spicyness in several of the mentioned spices. Pickled onions with mustard, garlic a little ginger, a little allspice and some black peper would have quite a bite to it without any chilli in the mix. Pickled horse radish root might be worth an experiment (for the foolhardy).
I probably should have said it beats most commercially available paprika hands down. I haven’t tried Hungarian, other than in dishes prepared in Budapest.
Cilantro is an excellent example. Biting into a piece of fresh cilantro can give a “hot” feeling. Cloves burn a bit, but I don’t know if I would call them “hot” as much as “intense”. You don’t need water to deal with a clove, but you don’t want to hold it in your mouth and suck on it for too long either. A Pakistani friend of mine says that it is a folk remedy for toothache in Pakistan to squeeze a bit of clove oil out of a fresh clove onto a hurting tooth. I’m not sure I could handle that.
Why? There’s no trade embargo on China. Is there something dangerous about Szechuan peppercorns?