290 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
off, and the friction gives a fine polished appearance to 
the pepper, which is much admired. 
The finest grades of white pepper are made from 
Singapore and Penang black pepper in Europe in this 
way, or by soaking it previously and using decorticators. 
The same process is used in America, but apparently as 
late .as 1899 there were only one or two white pepper 
factories, most of the white pepper coming direct from 
the East. An attempt was made by a merchant in 
Penang some years ago to hull dry pepper with the aid 
of chemicals and to bleach it afterwards, but the process 
proved too expensive. 
In Penang the white pepper is made from Sumatran 
dried black pepper. The fruits are soaked in milk of 
lime for some weeks, till the outer coats soften and can 
be rubbed off with the hand or by trampling with the 
feet. After this it is slightly coated with lime. 
When freshly dried the pepper comes out white 
after hulling, but after being kept some time before 
hulling, it is apt to be greyish in colour. This grey seed 
is sometimes polished and rubbed with lime to make it 
look white [Planting Opinion, 1899, p. 263). Liming 
pepper to whiten it is not at all uncommon, and limed 
pepper is often found in commerce, as its whiter appear- 
ance is popular and allows of its being passed as of a 
higher grade. The fraud seems to be most generally 
perpetrated in the country in which pepper is grown. 
The seed is normal in appearance, but presents a rougher 
surface than usual, and is generally of a more dead- 
white colour. It is an objectionable treatment, and 
limed pepper is disqualified from exhibitions of agri- 
cultural produce in the East. The best white pepper 
should be large, even, clean, and of good light colour, 
with no stains or grey tint. 
The hulls rubbed off in decorticating are ground up 
and sold as pepper dust, or as ground black pepper. 
This substance is liable to heavy adulterations with dirt 
of all kinds, and even ground olive stones. 
