How to process post-harvest black pepper

Pepper Also called Pepper which has the Latin name Piper Albi Linn is a plant that is rich in chemical ingredients, such as pepper oil, fatty oil, and starch. Then for black pepper in Latin called Piper Nigrum this is known as one of the spices commonly used in cooking so that the cuisine has its own spicy flavor. Just like white pepper, black pepper also grows from the same tree or plant.

The stages of processing black pepper are as follows:

1. Threshing
To speed up threshing or releasing the handle of the pepper or dompolan, then the freshly picked pepper fruit is stacked on the floor with a floor mat with a stack thickness of 30 cm to + 1 meter for 2-3 days. The stack is usually closed with a sack. After that the pepper is separated from the dompolan or the handle by using a filter made of woven bamboo and placed rather high and underneath it is placed a container or tampah as a container of pepper fruit. The stalks or handles of the fruit left on the bamboo filter are separated and accommodated in special containers.

2. Drying
Pepper that has been separated from the handle, then dried in the sun for 3-7 days depending on the weather conditions. Drying the pepper is done by using a mat, tampah or plastic. To improve drying efficiency and prevent pepper contamination, drying can be improved by using drying floors made higher than the ground. During the drying process, the pile of pepper is flipped or thinned with a 10 cm pile thickness using scratching from the wood so that drying is faster and evenly distributed. Determination of the end of the drying of pepper can be done organoleptically by touching or massaging with the fingers where the pepper is considered dry when massaged giving the sound of cracking and breaking. In addition, it can also be done with a moisture meter, according to the desired water content.

3. Cleaning and Sorting
Dry pepper is then sifted with tampah, which is to remove light ingredients and other foreign objects such as soil, sand, dried leaves, handles, fibers and also some light pepper.

4. Packaging and Storage
Clean dried pepper is then put in a sack or other strong and clean storage container. The sack or container is then stored in a dry and non-moist storage room (± 70%), with a base of ± 15 cm of bamboo or wood from the floor so that the bottom of the sack is not directly related to the floor. For the processing of black pepper, from 100 kg of wet pepper that is still in hand, wet pepper with no handle is between 70-80 kg or an average of 80 kg and then dry black pepper is obtained between 25 - 33 kg or an average of 31 kg

For additional information, it turns out that black pepper is not only used as a cooking spice to improve the taste of food, but also has other properties that are efficacious with health. With the content of vitamins C and K, potassium, fiber as well as iron, black pepper is believed to be able to treat various diseases and can also overcome a variety of hair health problems.