Do not eat whole szechuan peppercorns on their own, especially not if they're relatively fresh. They're good to cook with, and I recommend crushing one up and tasting a small piece of it to see what they do and taste like, but if you just pop a whole one in your mouth and chew it up your entire mouth will go numb, begin overproducing saliva which will just spread the effect and overpowering floral taste around and start it running down your throat, and then you'll start retching and struggling not to vomit.
They're a great spice to use, but they're extremely strong (and have to be, because the numbing chemical in them is heat sensitive and breaks down a bit when cooked, meaning you have to use a lot when cooking to get the effect to come through, not to mention how diluted it gets when mixed into food).
The simplest way to describe them is to imagine the taste and sensation of licking a 9volt battery, and then layer in the scent of an extremely floral perfume but as a flavor. Both of those get toned down when it's used in food, and the cooked flavor is still a little floral (and hard to pair well with other flavors, I've found) but in a more sweet/savory food way if that makes sense.
Do not eat whole szechuan peppercorns on their own, especially not if they're relatively fresh. They're good to cook with, and I recommend crushing one up and tasting a small piece of it to see what they do and taste like, but if you just pop a whole one in your mouth and chew it up your entire mouth will go numb, begin overproducing saliva which will just spread the effect and overpowering floral taste around and start it running down your throat, and then you'll start retching and struggling not to vomit.
They're a great spice to use, but they're extremely strong (and have to be, because the numbing chemical in them is heat sensitive and breaks down a bit when cooked, meaning you have to use a lot when cooking to get the effect to come through, not to mention how diluted it gets when mixed into food).
Neat info, thank you. Now I definitely wanna try one. But just a tiny piece of one. It sounds like a spicy clove, which I also like to cromch
The simplest way to describe them is to imagine the taste and sensation of licking a 9volt battery, and then layer in the scent of an extremely floral perfume but as a flavor. Both of those get toned down when it's used in food, and the cooked flavor is still a little floral (and hard to pair well with other flavors, I've found) but in a more sweet/savory food way if that makes sense.
I was not prepared to learn so much about peppercorns when I made this thread. I have no regrets
This actually sounds kind of good, but in a "huffing Jovan perfume while being tazed" sort of way, if you happened to be into it.
im gonna eat a whole one
I did, and so has everyone I've ever warned to not do that exact thing, lmao. Make sure to get back to me on how that goes for you.
I chewed on a sprig (like, a small branch worth, with stem) out of the hot pot on a dare. It was dope. Like having local anaesthetic for your tongue.