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You are here: Home / Ingredients / Herbs and Spices / Sansho Pepper

Sansho Pepper

November 25, 2006 by Benjamin and Koshiki 23 Comments

sansho_pepper

Despite its name sansho pepper is not actually a pepper. I guess you might call it a spice with some peculiar traits. It’s earthy and tangy with a bit of lemon. When put directly on your tongue, you’ll notice a sort of tingling sensation.

Sansho pepper is usually sold ground, but you can also buy the berries and grind it yourself. It’s typically used on grilled foods like yakitori (chicken) or eel.

The sansho or prickly ash tree also yields the fragrant kinome leaves –  which are often used as a garnish.

Filed Under: Herbs and Spices

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Phil

    May 27, 2016 at 1:21 pm

    March 15, 2013 High on Spice: 4 Kinds of Sichuan Peppercorns to Try – See more at:
    http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2013/03/high-on-spice-4-kinds-of-sichuan-peppercorns-to-try.html

    Reply
  2. Phil

    May 27, 2016 at 1:18 pm

    Not true, Sansho turns red when it ripens.
    English video from NHK Japan

    World Warms to Japanese Spice
    http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/videos/20160526114849819/

    Reply
  3. Robin S

    November 25, 2013 at 3:06 pm

    I would not touch these peppers ever again! After tasting about 1/2 of
    a peppercorn size of this, my throat closed up, could not breathe, had
    immediate severe allergic reaction. Thought I was going to die for about
    a minute! Beware of this pepper !!!!

    Reply
  4. KAREN MANASCO

    November 15, 2013 at 2:57 am

    As of this posting, 11-14-2013, the whole Sansho pepper is back in stock at Spice House.

    http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/japanese-green-sansho-pepper-whole-or-ground

    Reply
  5. Toby H

    September 8, 2013 at 7:52 pm

    I thought Sansho pepper and Szechuan pepper although similar is slight difference. Szechuan pepper is red color whereas Sansho pepper is green peppercorns. Taste probably very similar but souschef sells them as different varieties.

    Reply
  6. Kouj

    April 10, 2013 at 10:24 pm

    How stable is this pepper? I have a very tight jar of this given to me some years ago. The powdered product looks uniform and runs freely.

    Reply
    • benjamin

      April 25, 2013 at 6:56 pm

      Like most spices, the flavors tend to get flatter as time goes and if it’s older than a year it’s probably best to buy something fresher.

      Reply
  7. Talbot

    January 6, 2012 at 11:00 pm

    I’ve been frustrated in my efforts to find the whole peppercorns as well. I just picked up my first jar of the ground version though, and it’s very flavorful and has the same tingling effect. It’s just a bit inconvenient for certain purposes.

    TheSpiceHouse.com(based in the US) sells them in whole form if you want to send away for them, but I’m not about to hassle with that.

    Reply
  8. reiko adams

    May 23, 2011 at 11:04 pm

    I just came back from the parson who has a quite large Sansho tree which really amazed me. She also has a lots of Myoga and an Ume tree which produces very large Ume. I guess her soil must be well fit for those.

    Reply
  9. sushi stu

    February 15, 2011 at 2:45 pm

    If you’re in Europe you can get it from

    http://www.sushisushi.co.uk/store/gbu0-catshow/japanese_spices.html

    Reply
  10. bsmith

    April 24, 2007 at 4:05 pm

    Sansho pepper is similar to Szechuan pepper. Try asking for whole Szechuan Peppercorns at a Chinese or Asian grocery store.

    Penzeys Spices seems to carry these as well , here is the link:
    http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeysszechuanpeppercorns.html

    You can also buy a 12 gram bottle of S&B sansho pepper from Amazon for about $5 bucks.

    Reply
  11. Mark Beveridge

    March 1, 2007 at 9:47 pm

    Where can I buy the whole sansho pepper berries? All I’ve been able to find is ground.

    Reply

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A food blog brought to by Koshiki Yonemura. After almost two decades of running a restaurant in St. Paul with my husband, I now operate a boutique travel company, teach cooking classes and share recipes on this blog. Please leave a comment or send a message. I'd love to hear from you!

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