Timur berry

How to Use Timur Berry in Your Dishes?

Explore Delicately Citrusy Flavors

Extremely delicate and floral, this berry (also known as Timut pepper) does not pair well with dishes that are too powerful. It is best used infused or lightly crushed just before tasting.

Using Timur Berry (or Timut Pepper)?

Our recipe ideas for using Timur berry in your cooking:

• Timur berry cocktail: find the complete recipe here.
  
• scallops with Timur sauce: Sauté a few scallops for 1 minute on each side. Set aside. Deglaze the pan with 10cl of orange juice and add 1/2 teaspoon of crushed Timur berries;
• Timur banana compote: simply sauté 4 bananas with 30g of unsalted butter, 2 cardamom pods, and a few crushed Timur berries;
• salmon with Timur berries: sprinkle crushed Timur berries on your slices of smoked salmon;
• Timur berry chantilly: heat half of the cream and pour it hot, before boiling, over the Timur berries. Cover and chill before whipping it up;
• peach sorbet with Timur berries: sprinkle a pinch of crushed Timur berries on your homemade sorbet before serving;
• velouté of white cabbage with Timur berries: add 2 pinches of crushed Timur berries before cooking the cabbage and onion;
• Timur berry crème brûlée: infuse 5 crushed Timur berries in the cream, then strain.
• Pineapple, white chocolate, Timur berry tartlet and verbena sorbet: find the complete recipe here.
• Honorine whipped cream with Timur berries: find the complete recipe here.
• Roasted langoustines with Timur berries: find the complete recipe here.
• Timur berry lemon tart: find the complete recipe here.
• Also find 3 tips with Timur berry on our Youtube channel.
  
  

Pronounced Notes for Incomparable Aromas

Visually, Timur berry resembles a miniature chestnut, minus the spines, and leans towards brown. The aromatic notes of Timur berry echo grapefruit, flowers, exotic fruits, or camphor. In the mouth, this delicate berry reveals floral and fruity notes, slightly spicy.

The Famous Timur Berry (also known as Timut Pepper)

Originating from Nepal, this Timur berry is harvested from small trees endemic to the Zanthoxylum armatum species of the Rutaceae family. It grows wild in the Mahabharat range between the Terai and the Pahar, at an altitude of over 2000 meters. Terai is the place where Buddha was born. There, Tharu villages are known for their earthen houses with thatched roofs. Timur berry is an essential spice among the populations of Terai in southern Nepal.

Once the annual harvest is complete, Timur berries are dried and then sorted by hand. On average, women sort about 5 kg of berries per day. Using large woven trays, sorting takes place in 3 distinct steps: removing branches and other foreign elements, separating black seeds from the pericarp, and finally, selecting the most mature berries according to their color.

The nickname of Timur berry is "grapefruit pepper" referring to its tangy notes, but you can also find it under the name "Timut pepper".

Where Does Timur Berry Come From?

The Story of a Berry with Amazing Aromas

The very first use of Timur berry dates back to the arrival of humans in southern Nepal. Today, this berry is at the heart of all Nepalese cuisines and accompanies every dish of traditional cuisine. Present in all markets of Kathmandu, the berry that top chefs in Europe clamor for is actually the everyday spice in Nepal.

The Nepalese population mainly lives off agriculture; indeed, every family owns a beehive, a rice field, or Timur berry plants that allow them to live.

"Timur" means "red pepper" in Nepali and refers to all spices resembling pepper in the country. The shrub on which the berries grow was used in the past as a dye obtained from the roots. Timur berry branches also served as toothbrushes.

Timur berry is available in the custom-made pepper box dedicated to the peppers of the world

Learn More About Pepper

What is a "pepper"?

Piperology: the science that studies peppers

Learn more about the Zanthoxylum genus and its species