Pantry guide
Best Sichuan pepper for home cooking
What Sichuan pepper is for, which kitchens use it, and where to find a jar worth cooking with.
Why cooks start here
Not a pepper: a citrus-numbing husk that makes mapo and dry-fried chicken hum.
In Chinese cooking, Sichuan pepper is not decoration. Add it where the recipe puts it: early if it needs fat and time, late if it is perfume.
Toast and grind. The numbing is the point. Pick out the shiny black seeds if you can — the husk is the spice.
Authentic Chinese Cuisine
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Related kitchens
The Chinese pantry, pots, and table
The spices, mixes, and hearths that belong to Chinese cooking — then the people around them, and the kitchens still joining the table.
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